THE 



LAWS OF SHORT WHIST, 



Jf L? BALDWIN. 



Is that the Law ? 



Thyself shalt see the Act. 



ADOPTED BY THE FOLLOWING CLUBS :- 



ARLINGTON. 

ARMY AND NAVY. 

ARTHUR'S. 

BOODLE'S. 

BROOKES'S. 

CARLTON. 

CONSERVATIVE. 

GARRICK. 

GUARDS'. 



JUNIOR CARLTON. 

OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE. 

PORTLAND. 

RALEIGH. 

REFORM. 

ROYAL YACHT. 

ST. JAMES'S. 

WHITE'S. 



A TREATISE ON THE GAME 

By J. C. 



LONDON: 
HARRISON, 59, PALL MALL, 

BOOKSELLER TO THE QUEEN AND H. R. H. THE PRINCE OF WALFS 

MDCCCLXIV. 

vtvjf 

Right of Translation reserved. 

mite 3 s. Qd. 



LONDON : 

PBINTED BY HARBISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE. 



TO WHIST PLAYERS. 



Some years ago I suggested to the late Hon. 
George Anson (one of the most accomplished 
Whist Players of his day), that as the supremacy 
of Short Whist was an acknowledged fact, a re- 
vision and reformation of Hoyle's Rules would 
confer a boon on Whist Players generally, and 
on those especially to whom disputes and doubtful 
points were constantly referred. Our views coin- 
cided, but the project was, for the following 
reason, abandoned : — Fully aware that a more 
diffuse Code of Laws, sanctioned by authority 
of the leading Clubs, was an absolute necessity, 
still more conscious were we that in persuading 
the Whist world to adopt any innovation on 
old rules, we must incur a certain amount of 
difficulty and trouble, with a very uncertain 
chance of success. 

In subsequent years, having witnessed many 
questionable cases, which, despite the existence 
of Hoyle and other authors, were invariably re- 
ferred to the Whist Players of the day, I deter- 
mined to make an effort, and appeal to some of 



iv 



the London Clubs for their assistance and sup- 
port. The following Gentlemen most kindly con- 
sented to co-operate with me ; and appointed 
J. Clay, Esq., as their Chairman: — 

Gr. Bentinck, Esq., M.P. Arlington. Carlton. Travellers'. 

White's. 

J. Bushe, Esq. Arlington. Arthur's. Boodle's. 

Portland. Travellers' . White's. 
J. Clay, Esq., M.P. Arlington. Oxford and Cambridge. 

Portland. 

C. GrEEYiLLE, Esq. Arlington. Brooke's. Travellers', 

White's. 

E. Knightley, Esq., M.P. Arlington. Boodle's. Carlton, 
White's. 

H. B. Mayne, Esq. Arlington. Arthur's. Portland. 

Oxford and Cambridge. 
Gr. Payne, Esq. Arlington. Arthur's. White's, 

Colonel Pipon. Arlington. Army and Navy, 

Portland. 

On May 2, 1863, the Committee of the Arling- 
ton Club passed the following resolution : — - 

That the above-mentioned Gentlemen do act as 
a Committee to frame a Code of Hides for Whist, 
which, if approved? be adopted at the Arlington Club. 

H. J. EOTJS, 

CJi '.airman. 

This Committee having prepared a Code of 
Laws, sent it to the Portland, with a request that 
it might be adonted by that Club : at a General 



V 



Meeting the following Gentlemen most kindly 
consented to act as the Portland Club Whist Com- 
mittee : — 

H. D. Jones, Esq., Chairman. 
Charles Adams, Esq. Saml. Petrie, Esq. 

W. F. Baring, Esq. H. M. Eiddell, Esq. 

H. Eitzroy, Esq. R. Wheble, Esq. 

Their suggestions and additions were imme- 
diately accepted by the Arlington, and on Satur- 
day, April 80th, 1864, the following resolution 
was proposed and carried unanimously: — 

Arlington Club. 
That the Laws of Short Whist, as framed by 
the Whist Committee, and edited by John Loraine 
Baldwin, Esq,, be adopted at this Club. 

BEAUFORT, 

Chairman. 

I will no longer trespass on the Reader's time 
and patience, than to express my very grateful 
thanks to all those gentlemen who have so kindly 
lent their valuable aid in supplying a want in the 
Whist world, viz., a Code of Laws which has 
already received the sanction of some, and will, I 
trust, eventually obtain the sanction of all the 
leading Clubs of London. 

John Loraine Baldwin . 

May, 1864. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

The Laws of Short Whist . . . . . 1 — 18 

The Rubber . • . . . . . . 1 

Scoring ......... 1 

Cutting . • 2 

Formation of Table 3 

Cutting Cards of equal value ..... 3 

Cutting out ........ 3 

Entry and Re-entry ...... 4 

Shuffling . 4 

The Deal 5 

A New Deal 6 

A Misdeal . . ..... 7 

The Trump Card . ..... 9 

Cards liable to be Called 9 

Cards played in Error, or not played to a Trick . 12 

The Revoke .12 

Calling for New Cards . . . . . . 15 

General Rules . . . . . . 15 

Etiquette of Whist . . . . . . 16 

Dummy 18 

Double Dummy 18 



THE LAWS OF SHORT WHIST. 



THE RUBBER. 

1. The rubber is the best of three games. If the 
first two games be won by the same players, the 
third game is not played, 

SCORING. 

2. A game consists of five points. Each trick, 
| above six, counts one point. 

3. Honours, i.e.. Ace, King, Queen, and Knave of 
trumps are thus reckoned : 

If a player and his partner, either separately or 
conjointly, hold — 

I. The four honours, they score four points. 
II. Any three honours, they score two points. 
III. Only two honours, they do not score. 

4. Those players, who, at the commencement of a 
deal, are at the score of four, cannot score honours. 

5. The penalty for a revoke takes precedence of 
all other scores. Tricks score next. Honours last. 

6. Honours, unless claimed before the trump card 
of the following deal is turned up, cannot be scored. 

7. To score honours is not sufficient ; they must 
be called at the end of the hand ; if so called, they 
may be scored at any time during the game. 



2 



THE LAWS OF SHORT WHIST. 



8. The winners gain — 

I. A treble, or game of three points, when 

their adversaries have not scored. 
II. A double, or game of two points, when 
their adversaries have scored less than 
three. 

III. A single, or game of one point, when 
their adversaries have scored three, or 
four. 

9. The winners of the rubber gain two points 
(commonly called the rubber points), in addition to 
the value of their games. 

10. Should the rubber have consisted of three 
games, the value of the losers' game is deducted 
from the gross number of points gained by their op- 
ponents. 

11. If an erroneous score be proved, such mistake 
can be corrected prior to the conclusion of the game 
in which it occurred, and such game is not concluded 
until the trump card of the following deal has been 
turned up. 

12. If an erroneous score, affecting the amount of 
the rubber, be proved, such mistake can be rectified 
at any time during the rubber. 

CUTTING-. 

13. The ace is the lowest card. 

14. In all cases, every one must cut from the same 
pack. 

15. Should a player expose more than one card, he 
must cut again. 




CUTTING OUT 



3 



FORMATION OF TABLE. 

16. If there are more than four candidates, the 
players are selected by cutting : those first in the 
room having the preference. The four who cut the 
lowest cards play first, and again cut to decide on 
partners ; the two lowest play against the two 
highest ; the lowest is the dealer, who has choice of 
cards and seats, and, having once made his selection, 
must abide by it, 

17. When there are more than six candidates, 
those who cut the two next lowest cards belong to 
the table, which is complete with six players ; on the 
retirement of one of those six players, the candidate 
who cut the next lowest card, has a prior right to 
any aftercomer to enter the table. 

CUTTINGr CARDS OF EQUAL VALUE. 

18. Two players cutting cards of equal value, 
unless such cards are the two highest, cut again ; 
should they be the two lowest, a fresh cut is 
necessary to decide which of those two deals. 

19. Three players cutting cards of equal value 
cut again ; should the fourth (or remaining) card 
be the highest, the two lowest of the new cut are 
partners, the lower of those two the dealer ; should 
the fourth card be the lowest, the two highest are 
partners, the original lowest the dealer. 

CUTTING- OUT. 

20. At the end of a rubber, should admission be 
claimed by any one, or by two candidates, he who 

B 2 



4 



THE LAWS OF SHORT WHIST. 



has, or they who have, played a greater number of 
consecutive rubbers than the others is, or are, out ; 
but when all have played the same number, they 
must cut to decide upon the out-goers ; the highest 
are out. 

ENTRY AND RE-ENTRY. 

21. A candidate wishing to enter a table must 
declare such intention prior to any of the players 
having cut a card, either for the purpose of com- 
mencing a fresh rubber, or of cutting out. 

22. In the formation of fresh tables, those can- 
didates who have neither belonged to, nor played at 
any other table have the prior right of entry ; the 
others decide their right of admission by cutting. 

23. Any one quitting a table prior to the conclu- 
sion of a rubber, may, with consent of the other 
three players, appoint a substitute in his absence 
during that rubber. 

24. A player cutting into one table, whilst be- 
longing to another, loses his right of re-entry into 
that latter, and takes his chance of cutting in, as if 
he were a fresh candidate. 

25. If any one break up a table, the remaining 
players have the prior right to him of entry into any 
other, and should there not be sufficient vacancies 
at such other table to admit all those candidates, 
they settle their precedence by cutting. 

SHUFFLING-. 

26. The pack must neither be shuffled below the 
table nor so that the face of any card be seen. 



THE DEAL. 



27. The pack must not be shuffled during the play 
of the hand. 

28. A pack, having been played with, must neither 
be shuffled, by dealing it into packets, nor across the 
table. 

29. Each player has a right to shuffle, once only, 
except as provided by Rule 32, prior to a deal, after 
a false cut, or when a new deal has occurred. 

30. The dealer's partner must collect the cards for 
the ensuing deal, and has the first right to shuffle 
that pack. 

31. Each player after shuffling must place the 
cards properly collected, and face downwards, to the 
left of the player about to deal, 

32. The dealer has always the right to shuffle 
last ; but should a card or cards be seen during his 
shuffling, or whilst giving the pack to be cut, he 
may be compelled to re- shuffle. 

THE DEAL. 

33. Each player deals in his turn ; the right of 
dealing goes to the left. 

34. The player on the dealer's right cuts the 
pack, and in dividing it, must not leave fewer than 
four cards in either packet ; if in cutting, or in re- 
placing one of the two packets on the other, a card 
be exposed, or if there be any confusion of the cards, 
or a doubt as to the exact place in which the pack 
was divided, there must be a fresh cut. 

35. When a player, whose duty it is to cut, has 
once separated the pack, he cannot alter his inten- 
tion ; he can neither re-shuffle nor re-cut the cards. 



G 



THE LAWS OF SHORT WHIST. 



36. When the pack is cut, should the dealer shuffle 
the cards, he loses his deal. 

A NEW DEAL. 

37. There fnust be a new deal — 

I. If during a deal, or during the play- 

hand, the pack be proved incorre< 
imperfect. 

II. If any card, excepting the last, be faced 

in the pack. 

38. If, whilst dealing, a card be exposed by the 
dealer or his partner, should neither of the adver- 
saries have touched the cards, the latter can claim a 
new deal ; a card exposed by either adversary gives 
that claim to the dealer, provided that his partner 
has not touched a card ; if a new deal does not take 
place, the exposed card cannot be called. 

39. If, during dealing, a player touch any of his 
cards, the adversaries may do the same, without 
losing their privilege of claiming a new deal, should 
chance give them such option. 

40. If, in dealing, one of the last cards be exposed, 
and the dealer turn up the trump before there is 
reasonable time for his adversaries to decide as to a 
fresh deal, they do not thereby lose their privilege. 

41. If a player, whilst dealing, look at the trump 
card, his adversaries have a right to see it, and may 
exact a new deal. 

42. If a player take into the hand dealt to him a 
card belonging to the other pack, the adversaries, on 
discovery of the error, may decide whether they will 
have a fresh deal or not. 




A MISDEAL, 



A MISDEAL. 

43. A misdeal loses the deal. 

44. It is a misdeal — 

L Unless the cards are dealt into four 
packets, one at a time in regular rota- 
tion, beginning with the player to the 
dealer's left. 

II. Should the dealer place the last (i.e., the 

the trump) card, face downwards, on 
his own, or any other pack. 

III. Should the trump card not come in its 

regular order to the dealer; but he 
does not lose his deal if the pack be 
proved imperfect. 
IV. Should a player have fourteen cards, 
and either of the other three less than 
thirteen. 

V. Should the dealer, under an impression 
that he has made a mistake, either 
count the cards on the table, or the 
remainder of the pack. 

VI. Should the dealer deal two cards at once, 

or two cards to the same hand, and 
then deal a third : but if, prior to deal- 
ing that third card, the dealer can, by 
altering the position of one card only, 
rectify such error, he may do so, except 
as provided by the second paragraph of 
this Law. 

VII. Should the dealer omit to have the pack 

cut to him, and the adversaries discover 



3 



THE LAWS OF SHORT "WHIST. 



the error, prior to the trump card 
being turned up, and before looking at 
their cards, but not after having done 
so. 

45. A misdeal does not lose the deal if, during the 
dealing, either of the adversaries touch the cards 
prior to the dealer's partner having done so, but 
should the latter have first interfered with the cards, 
notwithstanding either or both of the adversaries 
have subsequently done the same, the deal is lost. 

46. Should three players have their right number 
of cards — the fourth have less than thirteen, and not 
discover such deficiency until he has played any of 
his cards, the deal stands good ; should he have 
played, he is as answerable for any revoke he may 
have made as if the missing card, or cards, had been 
in his hand ; he may search the other pack for it, or 
them. 

47. If a pack, during or after a rubber, be proved 
incorrect or imperfect, such proof does not alter any 
past score, game, or rubber : that hand in which the 
imperfection was detected is null and void ; the dealer 
deals again. 

48. Any one dealing out of turn, or with the ad- 
versary's cards, may be stopped before the trump 
card is turned up, after which the game must proceed 
as if no mistake had been made. 

49. A player can neither shuffle, cut, nor deal for 
his partner, without the permission of his oppo- 
nents. 

50. If the adversaries interrupt a dealer whilst 
dealing, either by questioning the score or asserting 



CARDS LIABLE TO BE CALLED. 



9 



that it is not his deal, and fail to establish such claim, 
should a misdeal occur, he may deal again. 

51. Should a player take his partner's deal and 
misdeal, the latter is liable to the usual penalty, and 
the adversary next in rotation to the player who 
ought to have dealt then deals. 

THE TRUMP CARD. 

52. The dealer, when it is his turn to play to the 
first trick, should take the trump card into his hand ; 
if left on the table after the first trick be turned and 
quitted, it is liable to be called ; his partner may at 
any time remind him of the Kability. 

53. After the dealer has taken the trump card into 
his hand, it cannot be asked for ; a player naming it 
at any time during the play of that hand is liable to 
have his highest or lowest trump called. 

54. If the dealer take the trump card into his hand 
before it is his turn to play, he may be desired to lay 
it on the table ; should he show a wrong card, this 
card may be called, as also a second, a third, &c, 
until the trump card be produced. 

55. If the dealer declare himself unable to re- 
collect the trump card, his highest or lowest 
trump may be called at any time during that hand, 
and unless it cause him to revoke, must be played ; 
the call may be repeated, but not changed, L e., from 
highest to lowest, or vice versa, until such card is 
played. 

CARDS LIABLE TO BE CALLED. 

56. All exposed cards are liable to be called, and 



10 



THE LAWS OF SHORT WHIST. 



must be left on the table ; but a card is not an ex- 
posed card when dropped on the floor, or elsewhere 
below the table. 

The following are exposed cards : — 

I. Two or more cards played at once. 
II. Any card dropped with its face upwards, 
or in any way exposed on or above 
the table, even though snatched up so 
quickly that no one can name it. 

57. If any one play to an imperfect trick the best 
card on the table, or lead one which is a winning card 
as against his adversaries, and then lead again, or 
play several such winning cards, one after the other, 
without waiting for his partner to play, the latter 
may be called on to win, if he can, the first or any 
other of those tricks, and the other cards thus im- 
properly played are exposed cards. 

58. If a player, or players, under the impression 
that the game is lost — or won — or for other reasons 
— throw his or their cards on the table face upwards, 
such cards are exposed, and liable to be called, each 
player's by the adversary; but should one player 
alone retain his hand, he cannot be forced to abandon 
it. 

59. If all four players throw their cards on the 
table face upwards, the hands are abandoned ; and 
no one can again take up his cards. Should this 
general exhibition show that the game might have 
been saved, or won, neither claim can be entertained, 
unless a revoke be established. The revoking players 
are then liable to the following penalties : They 
cannot under any circumstances win the game by 



CAKDS LIABLE TO BE CALLED. 



11 



the result of that hand, and the adversaries may add 
three to their score, or deduct three from that of the 
revoking players. 

60. A card detached from the rest of the hand so 
as to be named is liable to be called ; but should 
the adversary name a wrong card, he is liable to 
have a suit called when he or his partner have the 
lead. 

61. If a player, who has rendered himself liable to 
have the highest or lowest of a suit called, fail to 
play as desired, or if when called on to lead one suit, 
lead another, having in his hand one or more cards 
of that suit demanded, he incurs the penalty of a 
revoke. 

62. If any player lead out of turn, his adversaries 
may either call the card erroneously led — or may call 
a suit from him or his partner when it is next the 
turn of either of them to lead. 

63. If any player lead out of turn, and the other 
three have followed him, the trick is complete, and 
the error cannot be rectified ; but if only the second, 
or the second and third have played to the false lead, 
their cards, on discovery of the mistake, are taken 
back ; there is no penalty against any one, excepting 
the original offender, whose card may be called, — or 
he, or his partner, when either of them has next the 
lead, may be compelled to play any suit demanded by 
the adversaries. 

64. In no case can a player be compelled to play a 
card which would oblige him to revoke. 

65. The call of a card may be repeated until such 
card has been played. 



12 



THE LAWS OF SHORT WHIST. 



66. If a player called on to lead a suit have none 
of it, the penalty is paid. 

CAEDS PLAYED IN EEEOE, OE NOT PLAYED TO 
A TEICK. 

67. If the third hand play before the second, the 
fourth hand may play before his partner. 

68. Should the third hand not have played, and 
the fourth play before his partner, the latter may be 
called on to win, or not to win the trick. 

69. If any one omit playing to a former trick, and 
such error be not discovered until he has played to 
the next, the adversaries may claim a new deal ; 
should they decide that the deal stand good, the 
surplus card at the end of the hand is considered to 
have been played to the imperfect trick, but does 
not constitute a revoke therein. 

70. If any one play two cards to the same trick, 
or mix his trump, or other card, with a trick to which 
it does not properly belong, and the mistake be 
not discovered until the hand is played out, he is 
answerable for all consequent revokes he may have 
made. If, during the play of the hand, the error be 
detected, the tricks may be counted face downwards, 
in order to ascertain whether there be among them a 
card too many : should this be the case they may be 
searched, and the card restored ; the player is how- 
ever liable for all revokes which he may have mean- 
while made. 

THE EE YOKE. 

71. Is when a player, holding one or more cards of 
the suit led, plays a card of a different suit. 



THE REVOKE. 



13 



72. The penalty for a revoke : — 

I. Is at the option of the adversaries, who 
at the end of the hand, may either take 
three tricks from the revoking* player, — 
or deduct three points from his score, — 
or add three to their own score ; 
II. Can be claimed for as many revokes as 
occur during* the hand ; 

III. Is applicable only to the score of the game 

in which it occurs ; 

IV. Cannot be divided, i.e., a player cannot 

add one or two to his own score and 
deduct one or two from the revoking 
player; 

V. Takes precedence of every other score, 
e.g. — The claimants two — their oppo- 
nents nothing — the former add three to 
their score — and thereby win a treble 
game, even should the latter have made 
thirteen tricks, and held four honours. 

73. A revoke is established, if the trick in which 
it occur be turned and quitted, i.e., the hand re- 
moved from that trick after it has been turned face 
downwards on the table— or if either the revoking 
player or his partner, whether in his right turn or 
otherwise, lead or play to the following trick. 

74. A player may ask his partner whether he has 
not a card of the suit which he has renounced; 
should the question be asked before the trick is 
turned and quitted, subsequent turning and quitting 
does not establish the revoke, and the error may be 
corrected, unless the question be answered in the 



14 



THE LAWS OF SHORT WHIST. 



negative, or unless the revoking player or his part- 
ner have led or played to the following trick. 

75. At the end of the hand, the claimants of a re- 
voke may search all the tricks. 

76 > If a player discover his mistake in time to 
save a revoke, the adversaries, whenever they think 
•it, may call the card thus played in error, or may 
require him to play his highest or lowest card to that 
trick in which he has renounced; — any player or 
players who have played after him may withdraw 
their cards and substitute others : the cards with- 
drawn are not liable to be called. 

77. If a revoke be claimed, and the accused player 
or his partner mix the cards before they have been 
sufficiently examined by the adversaries, the revoke 
is established. The mixing of the cards only renders 
the proof of a revoke difficult, but does not prevent 
the claim, and possible establishment, of the penalty. 

78. A revoke cannot be claimed after the cards 
have been cut for the following deal. 

79. The revoking player and his partner may, 
under all circumstances, require the hand in which 
the revoke has been detected to be played out. 

80. If a revoke occur, be claimed and proved, bets 
on the odd trick, or on amount of score, must be 
decided by the actual state of the latter, after the 
penalty is paid. 

81. Should the players on both sides subject them- 
selves to the penalty of one or more revokes, neither 
can win the game ; each is punished at the discretion 
of his adversary. 

82. In whatever way the penalty be enforced, 



GENERAL RULES. 



15 



under no circumstances can a player win the game by 
the result of the hand during which he has revoked ; 
he cannot score more than four. (Yide Kule 61.) 

CALLING FOR NEW CAEDS. 

83. Any player (on paying for them) before, but 
not after, the pack be cut for the deal, may call for 
fresh cards. He must call for two new packs, of 
which the dealer takes his choice. 

GENERAL ETJLES. 

84. Where a player and his partner have an option 
of exacting from their adversaries one of two penal- 
ties, they should agree who is to make the election, 
but must not consult with one another which of the 
two penalties it is advisable to exact ; if they do so 
consult they lose their right ; and if either of them, 
with or without consent of his partner, demand a 
penalty to which he is entitled, such decision is final. 

This rule does not apply in exacting the penalties for a 
revoke ; partners have then a right to consult. 

85. Any one during the play of a trick, or after 
the four cards are played, and before, but not after 
they are touched for the purpose of gathering them 
together, may demand that the cards be placed before 
their respective players. 

86. If any one, prior to his partner playing, should 
call attention to the trick — either by saying that it 
is his, or by naming his card, or, without being re- 
quired so to do, by drawing it towards him — the 
adversaries may require that opponent's partner to- 



16 



THE LAWS OF SHORT WHIST. 



play the highest or lowest of the suit then led, or to 
win or lose the trick. 

87. In all cases where a penalty has been incurred, 
the offender is bound to give reasonable time for the 
decision of his adversaries. 

88. If a bystander make any remark which calls 
the attention of a player or players to an oversight 
affecting the score, he is liable to be called on, by 
the players only, to pay the stakes and all bets on 
that game or rubber. 

89. A bystander, by agreement among the players, 
may decide any question. 

90. A card or cards torn or marked must be either 
replaced by agreement, or new cards called at the 
expense of the table. 

91. Any player may demand to see the last trick 
turned, and no more. Under no circumstances can 
more than eight cards be seen during the play of the 
hand, viz : the four cards on the table which have 
not been turned and quitted, and the last trick 
turned. 



ETIQUETTE OP WHIST. 

The following rules belong to the Established 
Etiquette of Whist. They are not called laws, as it 
is difficult, m some cases impossible, to apply any 
penalty to their infraction, and the only remedy is to 
cease to play with players who habitually disregard 
them. 



ETIQUETTE OF WHIST. 



17 



Two packs of cards are invariably used at Clubs : 
if possible this should be adhered to. 

Any one, having the lead and several winning- 
cards to play, should not draw a second card out of 
his hand until his partner has played to the first 
! trick, such act being a distinct intimation that the 
former has played a winning card. 

No intimation whatever, by word or gesture, 
1 should be given by a player as to the state of his 
hand, or of the game. 

A player who desires the cards to be placed, or 
who demands to see the last trick, should do it for 
his own information only, and not in order to invite 
the attention of his partner. 

No player should object to refer to a bystander 
who professes himself uninterested in the game, and 
able to decide any disputed question of facts ; as to 
who played any particular card — whether honours 
were claimed though not scored, or vice versa, — &c, 
&c. 

It is unfair to revoke purposely ; having made a 
revoke, a player is not justified in making a second in . 
Order to conceal the first. 

Until the players have made such bets as they 
wish, bets should not be made with bystanders. 

Bystanders should make no remark, neither should 
they by word or gesture give any intimation of the 
state of the game until concluded and scored, nor 
should they walk round the table to look at the differ- 
ent hands. 

No one should look over the hand of a player 
against whom he is betting. c 



13 



THE LAWS OF SHORT WHIST. 



DUMMY 

Is played by three players. 

One hand, called Dummy's, lies exposed onthe table. 

The laws are the same as those of Whist, with the 
following exceptions : — 

I. Dummy deals at the commencement of each 
rubber. 

II. Dummy is not liable to the penalty for a revoke, 
as his adversaries see his cards : should he revoke 
and the error not be discovered until the trick is 
turned and quitted, it stands good. 

III. Dummy being blind and deaf, his partner is 
not liable to any penalty for an error whence he can 
gain no advantage. Thus, he may expose some, or all 
of his cards — or may declare that he has the game, or 
trick, &c, without incurring any penalty ; if, how- 
ever, he lead from Dummy's hand when he should 
lead from his own, or vice versa, a suit may be called 
from the hand which ought to have led. 

DOUBLE DUMMY 

Is played by two players, each having a Dummy or 
exposed hand for his partner. The laws of the game 
do not differ from Dummy Whist, except in the fol- 
lowing special Law : — There is no misdeal, as the deal 
is a disadvantage. 



FINIS. 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 

By J. C. 



MEMBERS OF THE PORTLAND CLUB, 

ADMITTED AMONG WHOM, AS A BOY, 
I HAVE PASSED 
MANY OP THE PLEASANTEST DAYS OF MY LIFE, 
I HAVE LEAKNED 
WHAT LITTLE I KNOW OP WHIST, 
AND HAVE FORMED 
MANY OP MY OLDEST FRIENDSHIPS, 
THIS 

"TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST" 

IS 

BttsitKttts 

WITH FEELINGS OF EESPECT AND REGARD, 
BY THEIR OLD PLAYFELLOW, 

J. C. 



CONTENTS. 



Explanation of Technical Teems . . . .23 
Querent Odds at Shoet Whist . . ~ . . .25 

CHAPTER I. 

geneeal advice . . . 27 

Maxims 34 

The Lead 42 

Second Hand 47 

Thied Hand 53 

Foueth Hand 57 

Inteemediate Sequences 60 

CHAPTER II. 

Geneeal Suggestions eoe G-ood Playees . . .62 

Ealse Caeds 70 

TJndee Play 75 

The Finesse . 79 

The Finesse Speculative 79 

The Finesse Obligatoey 82 

When to Diseegaed Rule 84 

LE GrEAND COUP 90 

G-EEAT YlENNA COUP 94 

CHAPTER III. 
Asking eoe Teumps 95 

CHAPTER IY. 

Peinciples to Guide Decisions 105 

Cases, and the Decisions op them .... 106 



23 



EXPLANATION OF TECHNICAL TERMS. 



Ace second, 
&c. 



Bumper. 

To ESTABLISH 
A SUIT. 



Finesse or to 

FINESSE. 



To force or 

A FORCE. 



Rand. 



[Ace with one other card. In the 
same way, king second, queen 
second, &c. AVith two cards we 
say ace three. With three, ace 
four, &c. 

f A rubber of eight points ; u e., 

< one in which the adversaries have 
[_ not scored. 

P To exhaust the best cards in it 

< which are against you, and retain 
L its entire command. 
f To endeavour to take a trick, or 

to keep the command of a suit, by 
playing, when second or third to 
play, a card lower than some one 
{ or more cards in your hand, and 
not in sequence with it, or them, on 
the chance that the intermediate 
card, or cards, may be with your 
right hand adversary. 

To play a card which forces some 
player either to trump it, or to lose 
the trick. Thus you force your 
adversary with a winning card ; 
your partner with a losing one. 

The thirteen cards held by each 
player. The entire play of all the 
four hands of each deal is also called 
a hand- 



24 



SHORT WHIST. 



King-card. 
Long trump 

or TRUMPS. 

Leader. 
Loye. 

denounce. 

Revoe^:. 

Rubber. 

Ruff, OR 

TO RUFF, OR TO 
TRUMP. 

Saw or see- 
saw. 



sequences. 



Singleton. 
Slam. 



(The best card left in each suit is 
its King-card. 

{The last trump or trumps left 
during the play of a hand. 

The first to play in each round 
No score. 
C Holding none of the suit played, 
\ to play a card of another suit, 
f Holding a card of the suit played, 
\_ to play a card of any other suit. 
The best of three games. 

{To play a trump to a suit in which 
you are wholly deficient. 

When you and your partner have 
each renounced a different suit, and 
play alternately each the suit which 
the other trumps. 

Three or more cards in the order 
of their value. A sequence of three 
cards is called a tierce — of four, a 
quart — of five, a quint — of six, a 
sixieme, and so on. Ace, king, and 
^ queen are called tierce major. Ace, 
king, queen, and knave, quart major, 
and so on. Other tierces, quarts, 
&c, are called after the card which 
heads them, as a tierce, quart, &c, 
to a king or to a queen, &c. 

One card only in a suit. 

The making every trick. 



CURRENT ODDS. 



25 



The best and third best card left 
in any suit, as ace and queen, which 
is the major tenace. If both these 
cards have been played, the king 
and knave become the tenace in the 
suit, and so on. 

The suit to which the turned up 
card belongs. 

See page 75. 



CURRENT ODDS AT SHORT WHIST. 

At the commencement of the game or rubber, it 
is 5 to 4 on the dealer for the game, and 6 to 5 on 
him for the rubber, either bet being slightly better 
to take than to lay. 

1 to love with the deal, is 11 to 8 on the game, 
and 5 to 4 on the rubber ; the deal being against, the 
betting on either game or rubber is even. 

2 to love with the deal, is 13 to 8 for the game. 
The deal being against, it is 11 to 8. For the rubber, 
with the deal, it is 3 to 2. The deal being against, 
11 to 8. 

3 to love, or 4 to love, with the deal is 2 to 1 on 
the game. The deal being against, it is 15 to 8. In 
this case the odds on the rubber are the same as 
those on the game. 

The first game being won, if the deal for the second 
game were in abeyance, the exact odds on the winner 
for the rubber would be 3 to 1. The current odds 



Trumps. 
Underplay. 



Tenace. < 



{ 



26 



SHORT WHIST. 



are, however, 5 to 2, but it is as good a bet to lay 3 
to 1 with the deal, as 5 to 2 against it. 

The first game, and 1 to love of the second, wit' 
the deal is 7 to 3. The deal being against, it is 
to 1. 

The first game, and 2 to love of the second, with 
the deal, is 7 to 2, and is an advantageous bet to lay. 
The deal being against the odds can scarcely be called 
less,, but they are not disadvantageous to take. 

The first game, and 3 or 4 to love of the second, 
with the deal or against it, is 4 to 1. No higher odds 
than these are ever given at any stage of the rubber, 
unless an honour has been turned up by the winners 
of the first game, and of the first 3 or 4 points of 
the second game, when 5 to 1 may be laid. The 4 
to 1 bet, however, is advantageous to lay with the 
deal, and not disadvantageous against it. 

The deal against the first point is an even bet for 
the game or rubber. 

It is an even bet that the dealer has two points, 
or more. For the purpose of this bet it is held that 
the dealer has two points, although he may not be 
able to score them ; i.e., the bet is won, if the dealer 
and his partner hold two by honours, although the 
adversaries being game by tricks, such honours are 
not scored. This bet is very slightly in favour of 
the layer. 

The foregoing odds, though, for the convenience 
of betters, they are not exactly calculated, are as 
near an approximation to the exact calculations as 
can be given without going to fractions, or getting 
into very high figures. 



Chapter I. 



ADVICE, MAXIMS, AND KULES FOB BEGINNERS. 

c< How am I to learn whist ?" is a question which 
must often have been addressed to every good whist- 
player, and which he, in all probability, has not 
found easy to answer. For almost all the works of 
any value on this game treat of the old game, long 
whist, partly because it is the old game, partly 
because it is said to require more skill than the 
modern, or short whist. I shall not stay to consider 
whether this is so or not. It is enough for me, that 
the old game is dead, and the modern in full vigour, 
in spite of at least one very glaring defect — the 
undue value of the honours, which are pure luck, as 
compared with that of the tricks, which greatly 
depend on skill. Short whist bears this mark of its 
hasty and accidental origin. If the change had 
been carefully considered, the honours would have 
been cut in half, as well as the points. Two by 
honours would have counted one point. Four by 
honours would have counted two. Had this been so, 
the game would be perfect, but the advantage of 
skill would be so great as to limit considerably the 
number of players. Some eighty years back, Lord 
Peterborough having one night lost a large sum of 
money, the friends with whom he was playing pro- 
posed to make the game five points instead of ten, 



28 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



in order to give the loser a chance, at a quicker 
game, of recovering his loss. The late Mr. Hoare, of 
Bath, a very good whist-player, and without a supe- 
rior at piquet, was one of this party, and has more 
than once told me the story. The new game was 
found to be so lively, and money changed hands with 
such increased rapidity, that these gentlemen and 
their friends, all of them leading members of the 
clubs of the day, continued to play it. It became 
general in the clubs — thence was introduced to pri- 
vate houses —travelled into the country — went to 
Paris, and has long since so entirely superseded the 
whist of Hoyle's day, that of short whist alone I 
propose to treat. I shall thus at least spare to my 
reader the learning much in the old works, that it is 
not necessary for him to know, and not a little which, 
if learned, should be at once forgotten. 

"How am I to learn whist?" I will tell you how 
I learnt it myself. Like most beginners, I looked on 
whist for a considerable time as a bad game of 
chance, and at last became tired of being the un- 
doubted muff of my party. I was constantly told, 
" You knew I had the best heart," or, " We only 
wanted three tricks, why did you not play your ace 
of clubs, when you knew me with the two last 
trumps?" or again, " You knew every card in my 
hand," and such like observations. It is true, I was 
perfectly innocent of the knowledge imputed to me, 
but I took it for granted that, when gentlemen of 
good sense and good character assured me so fre- 
quently of my intimate knowledge of their hands, 
that at least I ought to know them, and that there 



ADVICE, MAXIMS, AND RULES FOR BEGINNERS. 29 

must be some way of acquiring the information. I 
set to work to find it out, and was surprised at its 
simplicity. "Whist is a language, and every card 
played an intelligible sentence. 

I am addressing beginners only, yet may give 
them credit for knowing that which is self-evident, 
viz., that, having no pretension to take a trick, it is 
right to play the least valuable card in the suit, the 
deuce of course, if in the hand, as being the most 
worthless card. Also, I suppose them to know that 
in leading from an ace-king, or a king- queen suit, not 
being trumps, it is right to lead the king. Starting 
with this small stock of knowledge, let us look at the 
first round of a hand. We will take a very probable 
one, and let us see how much of the language of 
whist we already understand. I will distinguish the 
players by the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4* 

1. Having an ace-king suit, leads the king. Thus, 
if an adversary trumps the first round, or the leader 
sees cause to change his lead, it is clear that he 
probably holds the ace. Had he played his ace, he 
would have given no indication of the position of the 
king. 

2. Plays the four. 

3. Plays the six. 

4. Plays the eight. 

Let us put this into words. 

1. Having made the trick, says, "I either hold 
the ace, or I hold the queen, in which case my 
partner holds the ace, or my king would not have 
been permitted to make the trick. It may be that I 
hold all three, ace, king, and queen, 



30 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



2. Says, I do not hold the deuce or the three, 
otherwise I should not have played the four. 

3. Says, I do not hold the deuce, the three or the 
five, otherwise I should not have played the six. 

4. Says, I do not hold the deuce, the three, the 
five, or the seven, otherwise I should not have played 
the eight. 

Three players having told us that they do not hold 
the deuce, or the three, it is clear that these two 
cards are in the hand of the leader. For a similar 
reason it is also clear that the five is either with the 
leader or the second player, and that the seven is 
with the leader, or with the second or third player. 

I have treated these indications as infallible, but it 
may be that the ace of the suit has been held back 
by an adversary. It is rarely good play to do so, 
but it is very possible that it has been so, or one of 
the players may have asked for trumps. (See chap- 
ter on " Asking for Trumps.") In either of these 
cases, the second round of the suit will undeceive 
you. Some player also may in carelessness have 
played a wrong card. But I put this supposition 
aside, as the only safe plan is to consider that cards, 
especially in such an insignificant case as this, are 
regularly played, according to the known rules of the 
game. 

Let us now pursue our suit. The leader, having 
won the first trick with his king, leads the ace. 

2. Plays the five. 

3. Plays the queen. 

4. Plays the knave. 

We have ascertained that no player has asked for 



ADVICE, MAXIMS, AND RULES FOR BEGINNERS. 31 

trumps, and one suit is already pretty well known to 
us. The third and the fourth players have no more 
of it, and its remaining cards are with the leader and 
the second player. 

We will suppose that the leader's suit was ori- 
ginally ace, king, ten, three, and deuce ; he still 
holds, therefore, the ten, three, and deuce, which the 
second player knows as well as himself, while he 
knows that the second player must hold the two 
remaining cards, viz., the nine and the seven. If the 
leader plays his ten, it is true that he will force his 
right hand adversary, and give his partner an oppor- 
tunity, by throwing away a losing card, of indicating 
the suit which he wishes not to be led, and this may 
be of great advantage ; but on the other hand, he 
will leave the second player with the best card of the 
suit, the nine, hereafter to be played, it may be, with 
fatal effect, On such considerations, on such balance 
of advantage and disadvantage, the good player re- 
gulates his play, and, as the game goes on, each trick 
being full of information to the careful observer, by 
the time that the hand is half played out, he arrives 
at a pretty accurate idea of the broad features of 
each hand ; and when but three or four cards remain 
to each player, he very frequently knows, almost to 
a card, where they are to be found, arriving at this 
knowledge as much by having observed the cards 
which each player cannot possibly hold, as by those 
the position of which during the play has been 
plainly indicated. 

A beginner may object to my illustration that it is 
too much to expect from his unpractised memory and 



32 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



observation that he should commence by observing 
the deuces and the threes. So it is. I chose my illus- 
tration as one which tolerably explained my meaning, 
but do not advise him to puzzle himself at first, if he 
finds that it does puzzle him, by straining his memory 
about the small cards. Let him content himself at 
first by carefully observing the broad indications of 
the game, such as the different leads, whether strong 
or weak, the invitation to lead a trump, the cards 
thrown away when a player does not follow suit, &c, 
all which I hope to explain to him as I go on. With 
care, and with his eyes never wandering from the 
table, each day will add to the indications which he 
will observe and understand. He will find that mere 
memory has less to do with whist than he imagines, 
that it matters little whether the five or the six is the 
best card left of a suit, as long as he knows, which 
he generally ought to know, who has that best card. 
Memory and observation will become mechanical to 
him, and cost him little effort, and all that remains 
for him to do will be to calculate at his ease the best 
way of playing his own and his partner's hands, in 
many cases as if he saw the greater portion of the 
cards laid face upwards on the table. He will then 
be a fine whist-player. 

Talking over the hand after it has been played is 
not uncommonly called a bad habit, and an annoyance. 
I am firmly persuaded that it is among the readiest 
ways of learning whist, arid I advise beginners, 
when they have not understood their partner's play, 
or when they think that the hand might have been 
differently played with a better result, to ask for 



ADVICE, MAXIMS, AND RULES FOR BEGINNERS. 33 

information, and invite discussion. They will, of 
course, select for this purpose a player of recognised 
skill, and will have little difficulty in distinguishing 
the dispassionate and reasoning man from him who 
judges by results, and finds fault only because things 
have gone wrong. They will rarely find a real whist- 
player so discourteous as to refuse every information 
in his power, for he takes interest in the beginner 
who is anxious to improve. 

Much is also to be learned by looking over good 
players, who will generally be willing to explain the 
reasons for their play ; but the learner should only 
look over one hand, which he should follow carefully, 
as if he were himself playing it. 

I will now endeavour to reduce to maxims or 
rules the points to which a beginner should chiefly 
direct his attention, begging him to remember, that 
as they are observed by all moderately good players? 
most of them furnish those indications as to the 
position of the cards, to which I especially invite his 
consideration, and an observation of which, more 
than anything else, will help him to become an 
accomplished whist-player. 

He must not be discouraged if he not unfrequently 
loses by his obedience to rules, for good play and 
bad play do not mean that the one must win, and 
the other must lose. Let us suppose that he doubts 
between playing two cards — call them the ace of 
clubs and the ace of spades — and that by calcula- 
tion it is six to four in favour of playing the ace of 
clubs. If he plays it, he plays right; if he plays 
the ace of spades, he plays very badly ; yet, if the 

D 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



calculation is correct, he will gain four times out of 
ten by playing what is called, and what is accord- 
ing to probability, the wrong card. He may be 
contented, however, by gaining the remaining six 
chances, and this proportion will bring him through 
triumphantly in the long run. 

Lastly, although the following Rules may oc- 
casionally speak of things to be never done, and 
others to be always done, he must remember that no 
rules are without an exception, and few more open 
to exceptional cases than Rules for Whist. But he 
has not yet arrived at the exceptions. Let him play 
for a time — it may be a year — rigidly according to j 
rule, and he will then be in a position to seize 
the occasions on which Rule should be departed 
from. In the meantime, he will have amused him- 
self to little, if any, disadvantage, and the fine 
player will scarcely have asked for a better partner, 
than one who, by careful attention to rule, has given 
to him every possible indication of the position of 

he cards, and has enabled him, so to speak, to play 

wenty-six cards, instead of thirteen. 

MAXIMS. 

Count your cards before playing to the first trick. 

Carefully study your hand when you take it up, 
and consider the score of the game, as it is useless 
to scheme for two or three tricks, if you only require 
one, or to make the odd trick only at the score of one, 
or three, if your adversaries probably hold honours 
which will make them the game. Having done 



ADVICE, MAXIMS, AND RULES FOR BEGINNERS. 35 

this, keep your eyes constantly on the table, never 
looking at your hand except when it is your turn 
to play. No one can become even a moderately good 
whist-player whose attention is not constantly given 
to the table. 

Avoid getting into any particular habit of sorting 
your cards, such as always putting your trumps in 
the same place, &c. Players of no great delicacy 
may easily gain from your peculiarities some indica- 
tion of your strength, and even the most loyal may 
find difficulty in not noticing them, and being some- 
what influenced by the information which they have 
unintentionally acquired. 

Be sure to remember the trump card, however low 
its value. 

When your partner renounces a suit, never fail to 
ask him whether he is sure that he has none of it. 
If he revokes, and you have neglected this precau- 
tion, the fault is as much yours as it is his. 

If you have omitted to notice how the cards fell to 
a trick, ask that they be placed. 

Endeavour to remember as many of the cards 
played as you can. They will, in time, all dwell on 
your memory, but you must begin by at least know- 
ing all the chief cards which have been played, and 
by whom, in each suit. It is, however, still more 
important, and will greatly aid your memory, to 
observe with whom the strength in each suit pro- 
bably lies ; at this knowledge you may generally 
arrive thus — in all the first leads of the different suits, 
but especially in those of your partner, compare the 
card led with those of the suit which you hold, and 

d 2 



36 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



those which are played to the first round, in order to 
ascertain whether the leader has led from a strong, 
or from a weak suit. To make this calculation you 
must remember — 

1st. That strong suits, with the exception of a 
king, knave, ten suit, are led either from their 
highest or lowest card, and not from a middle card. 
From the highest card, unless the ace, only when 
the suit is headed by two or more cards of equal 
value. 

2ndly. That, with a suit of two or three weak 
cards, it is right to lead the highest. 

Bear this in your mind— your partner leads, say, 
the six, you have the seven, eight, ten, and queen. 
If this is his strong suit, and if consequently the six 
is the lowest of four cards, his other three cards 
must be the nine, knave, with king or ace — you 
finesse your ten, for if your partner is strong', your 
ten, he holding the knave, is as good as your queen. 
If he is weak, you are right to protect your suit as 
well as you can, and finesse against the knave. If 
your ten is taken by the knave, all doubt is at an 
end ; your partner has led from a weak suit. He has 
not the knave, therefore the six cannot be the lowest of 
four cards, and it is, almost to a certainty, the highest 
of two or three small cards. I say " almost to a cer- 
tainty," because it is possible that he may have led 
from six, nine, with king or ace. But I am speaking 
of an original lead, and such a suit would be so bad a 
lead, that you would very rarely find it from a good 
player. In illustration of the meaning of my advice 
to compare the first card led in a suit, with the cards 



ADVICE, MAXIMS, AND RULES FOR BEGINNERS. 37 

which yon held in it, and the first ronnd played, I 
have taken a tolerably obvious case, but the habit of 
this comparison will speedily enable you to distin- 
guish, four times out of five, the weak from the 
strong lead. 

Short of some unfailing indication, such as the 
foregoing, take it for granted, if your partner is a 
good player, that his first lead is from his strongest 
suit. 

If your partner refuses to trump a certain winning 
card, lead him a trump as soon as you get the lead, and, 
if necessary, run some risk to get it. If, however, 
you are yourself strong in trumps, bear in mind that 
he may not improbably have no trump at all, in which 
case you must make the best of your own hand. If 
he has refused to trump from strength, you ought to 
have the game between you. 

Observe the score of the game, and play to it, not 
trying to make two tricks when one is enough, or 
fearing to run a necessary risk to make the number 
of tricks required to save or win the game. To 
illustrate the meaning of " playing to the score," 
take the following case : You have the lead, and 
four cards in your hand, two small trumps, two 
better being left in against you, and two winning 
cards. You want two tricks to save the game. 
Play one of your winning cards, and if it is not 
trumped play the other. Your g-ame is saved. So 
that you do not play a trump, you must make two 
tricks ; but if, in order to save the game, it is neces- 
sary to make three tricks, you have but one chance, 
viz., to play a trump, and if the two trumps against 



08 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



you are in different hands, they fall together, and 
your three tricks are made. If the two trumps 
against you are in the same hand, the game is lost 
in whatever way you play it. 

Do not force your partner unless you hold four 
trumps, one of them being an honour, unless to secure 
a double ruff, which you have the means of making 
as obvious to him as it is to yourself. 

Or to make sure of the tricks required to save or 
win the game. 

Or unless he has already been forced, and has not 
led a trump, 

Or unless he has asked to be forced by leading from 
a single card, or two weak cards. 

Or unless the adversary has led, or asked for 
trumps. 

This last exception is the slightest of the justifi- 
cations for forcing your partner, when you are weak 
in trumps, but it is in most cases a sufficient apology. 

It follows from the above that there can be but 
few whist offences more heinous than forcing your 
partner, when he has led a trump, and you are your- 
self not very strong in them. To justify your force, 
when he has led a trump from strength, you should 
be able to answer for winning the game, unless this 
should be the only way in which you can give him 
the lead. 

Do not give away a certain trick by refusing to 
ruff, or otherwise, unless you see a fair chance of 
making two tricks at least by your forbearance. 

Lead through strong suits, and up to the weak suits, 
the latter being generally the better thing to do. 



ADVICE, MAXIMS, AND RULES FOR BEGINNERS. 39 

Let the first card you throw away be from your 
weakest suit. Your partner will take this as if you 
said to hirn, " Do not lead this suit unless you have 
great strength in it yourself." The observance of 
this is so important that in the great majority of 
bands, especially when you hold a very strong suit, 
you should prefer to unguard a king, or a queen, 
rather than deceive your partner as to the suit you 
wish him to lead. 

It is less dangerous generally to unguard a king 
than a queen. Unless the ace of the suit is led out, or 
lies with your left hand adversary — and even in this 
case, if he leads a small card of the suit — you will 
make your king without his guard. If, from fear of 
unguarding your king, you have deceived your 
partner as to your strong suit, he will of course lead 
the suit from which you have not thrown away, and, 
in this case, if the ace is to your left, your king falls, 
and the guard, which you unwisely kept, is of no 
service. In like manner remember that the card first 
thrown away by your partner is from his weakest 
suit, and do not lead it, unless it is an advantageous 
lead for your own hand, even in the event of his 
having no one strong card in it. He has told you 
that you must expect nothing from him in this suit, 
and, should you find him with some little strength in 
it, you may be pretty sure that he is stronger still in 
the other suits. 

This indication should be a most valuable guide to 
you in the play of the rest of the hand. 

Never play false cards. The habit, to which there 
are many temptations, of trying to deceive your 



40 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHISr. 



adversaries as to the state of your hand, deceives your 
partner as well, and destroys his confidence in you. 
A golden maxim for whist is, that it is of more im- 
portance to inform your partner, than to deceive your 
adversary. The best whist-player is he who plays 
the game in the simplest and most intelligible way. 

Keep the commanding card or the second best 
guarded of your adversary's suit, as long as it is safe 
to do so ; but be careful of keeping the commanding 
card single of your partner's, lest you should be 
obliged to stop his suit. 

With four trumps do not trump an uncertain card, 
i.e., one which your partner may be able to win. 
With less than four trumps, and no honour, trump 
an uncertain card. 

With a weak hand, seek every opportunity of 
forcing your adversary. It is a common and fatal 
mistake to abandon your strong suit, because you 
see that your adversary will trump it. Above all, if 
he refuses to trump, make him, if you can, and 
remember that when you are not strong enough to 
lead a trump, you are weak enough to force your 
adversary. 

Be careful, however, of leading a card of a suit of 
which neither adversary has one. The weaker will 
trump, and the stronger will take the opportunity of 
throwing away a losing card, if he has one. 

Let your first lead be from your strongest suit. 

The strongest leads are from suits headed with 
ace, king, or king and queen, or from sequences. 

In leading from two cards of equal value — say 
king and queen, or from a sequence — lead the highest; 



ADVICE, MAXIMS, AND RULES FOR BEGINNERS. 41 

but, when not the leader, take, or try to take, the 
trick with the lowest. 

If, however, you have five cards in a suit, with a 
tierce or a quart to a king, it is well to lead the 
lowest of the sequence in order to get the ace out of 
your partner's hand, if he has it, and thus retain 
yourself the full command of the suit. It is wrong, 
though frequently done, to lead the knave from a 
tierce to a king, unless you have at least five cards of 
the suit, as, if either of your adversaries holds the ten 
and three small cards, he will be left with the ten, 
the best of the suit after three rounds, if your part- 
ner, having the ace, has played it on your knave. 

Eeturn your partner's lead when you have not 
good suits of your own. 

When you return your partner's lead, if you held 
originally four or more cards in his suit, return to 
him the lowest of those left to you. If you held 
originally but three of his suit, return to him the 
' .uighest. Thus with ace, ten, three, and deuce, you 
should take with the ace, and return the deuce. 
With ace, ten, and deuce only, you take with the 
ace, and return to him the ten. 

The foregoing is, of all similar rules, to my mind 
the most important for the observance of whist- 
players. It proceeds on the theory that, if you have 
four cards of a suit, you are strong enough in it to 
husband your own strength ; whereas, if you have 
but three, you will do best to throw such strength 
as you have into your partner's hand. But careful 
attention to this rule has a much more important 
significance. It assists your partner to count your 



42 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



hand. You take the first trick in the suit which he 
leads — say, with the ace — and you return the 
ten. He is sure that you hold either no more, or 
only one more of the suit, and, when to the third 
round you play a low card, he knows that you have 
no more. You would not have returned the ten, 
if you had held originally four cards in the suit. 
Again, if you return to him — say, the deuce — and to 
the third round play a higher card, he knows that 
you have still a card left in his suit, because, if you 
had originally held only three cards in his suit, you 
would have returned to him the higher of the two 
left in your hand, and not the deuce. The import- 
ance of the knowledge, which you have enabled him 
to acquire, is scarcely to be over-rated. In trumps, 
for instance, when he holds one, with only one other 
left against him, he will very frequently know, 
as surely as if he looked into your hand, whether 
that other trump is held by you, or by an adversary. 
It follows from the above that you should not fail to 
remark the card in your own lead, which your part- 
ner returns to you, and whether that which he 
plays to the third round, is higher or lower than 
that which he returned. 



THE LEAD. 

In leading from two cards, lead the higher. A 
lead from a queen or knave and one small card is not 
objectionable, if you have a miserably weak hand, or 
one in which all the other suits are manifestly dis- 
advantageous ; your queen or knave may be valuable 



THE LEAD. 



43 



to your partner. But the lead from king and one 
small card can hardly ever be forced on you, and is 
only justifiable when your partner has indicated, by 
the cards he has thrown away, that this is his strong 
suit ; or when, to save or win the game, it is clear 
that he must be strong in the suit. The ace and one 
small card can also scarcely ever be an advantageous 
lead, unless under similar circumstances. 

In leading from three cards, lead the highest. 
Avoid, however, leading from the king or the queen 
with two small cards of the suit. The cases are very 
rare when either of these leads can be forced on you. 
With nothing else to do, and without any indication 
from your partner, you will be right to lead the 
lowest card ; but when he has shown you that this is 
his strongest suit, you will generally be right in 
leading the highest. Avoid, also, leading from king, 
queen, and one small card. If this suit is led else- 
where, you will generally make both your king and 
your queen, unless the ace is to your left, and some- 
times even then. Whereas, if you lead the suit, and 
the ace is against you, you can only make one trick. 

A lead from queen, knave, and one small card, or 
knave, ten, and one small card, is not bad when you 
have no better suit. 

The lead from ace and two small cards is rarely 
advisable. The ace is better kept to bring in your 
strong suit. If forced on you, the lead is from the 
lowest card. 

From king, queen, with two or more small cards 
of the suit, not being trumps, lead the king. In 
trumps, lead the lowest card. 



44 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



Prom queen, knave, and two or more small cards, 
or from knave, ten, and two or more small cards, lead 
the lowest. 

Hoyle advises that, when with queen, knave, and 
others, you hold the nine ; or, with knave, ten, and 
others, the eight ; or with ten, nine, and others, the 
seven, &c, you should lead your highest, in order to 
finesse your nine, or your eight, &c, as the case may 
be, on the return of your lead ; and this was the old 
system. It is now, however, generally abandoned as 
disadvantageous at short whist, and I doubt its being 
generally right at the long game. 

If, however, the game s in such a position as to 
oblige you to win every trick in the suit, your best 
chance will be, having the suits I have described, to 
lead the highest card. 

With an honour, and three or more small cards, lead 
the lowest. 

With four, five, or more small cards, lead the 
lowest, unless they are headed by a sequence. 

With any number of cards in a suit, not being 
trumps, headed by ace and king, lead your king-, and, 
unless you see cause to change your lead, continue 
with the ace. If you are obliged to change your 
lead, your partner will thus know that, in all proba- 
bility, you hold the ace. Had you played the ace, 
he would have had no knowledge of the position of 
the king. 

In like manner with tierce major or quart major of 
a suit, lead your king, and follow with the queen, 
thus always keeping your partner in the knowledge 
of the position of the ace. With an ace, king suit 



THE LEAD. 



45 



however, if you are strong in trumps, and if the 
other suits are exhausted, or if you have no chance 
of making tricks in them, you will not unfrequently 
be right in leading a small card, the more so if your 
right hand adversary has thrown from the suit. 

With ace and three small cards, lead the lowest. 

With ace and four small cards, lead the ace, and 
follow with the lowest. 

The foregoing two rules are in accordance with 
long-established English practice, from which, how- 
ever, the players of the Paris Clubs dissent, and, 
• from ace and three small cards, play out the ace, as 
we do from ace and four, or more small cards. The 
increased intercourse of late years between London 
and Paris, leading in many other things to an 
assimilation of fashions, has induced some players 
to adopt, in this respect, the Paris system, and has 
introduced some confusion into our best whist parties. 
Formerly, if a player led an ace and then a small 
card of a suit, you felt sure that he had led either 
from ace and one small card, or from ace and four or 
more small cards of the suit. You, of course, soon 
ascertained which ; you made your calculations, and 
counted the cards in his hand accordingly. But you 
are no longer safe in feeling sure that the lead is not 
from ace, and three small cards. Your friend may 
have taken to French fashions, and you will do well 
carefully to observe these eccentricities, and lay 
your account for the probability of their occurrence 
on a future occasion. I advise adherence to the old 
rule, as given above. I believe it to be right, and 
feel at least sure that, right or wrong, it is good 



46 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



policy to observe it, in order not to mislead your 
partner, until it is shown to be wrong, and generally 
discontinued. 

The lead from king, knave, ten, and others is 
exceptional. It is the only case of leading a midc 
card, and the practice is to lead the ten. With 
strong a suit you cannot afford to give a trick to an; 
thing less than the ace or queen, and the ten | 
chosen, instead of the knave, as the card to lead, ,; 
order to distinguish this from the lead from a kna^ 
ten suit. Here again Paris play differs from our 
and, though the ten is led in other suits, the kna^ 
is led in trumps. Here again also some few Englis 
players create confusion by following the Frenc j 
fashion. It may be right — there is little real di 
ference in the two systems — but as long as 01 
practice remains what it is, and what it has alwaj 
been, the knave, from king, knave, ten, and others i, 
trumps, is as wrong a card to play in England, a 
from the same suit, the ten would be in France. 

With ace, king, and others in trumps, lead tl 
lowest card, unless you have seven cards of the sui 
This will be almost always right when you have nc 
scored, and generally, as the first lead of the hand, 
at any score. Later in the hand many circumstance 
may make it right to secure two rounds of trumps. 

The lead from a single card is very generally con- 
demned as an original lead ; and, as a habit, it is very 
bad, though not unfrequent. The player who gene- 
rally leads from a single card, if he happens to have 
one, is always suspected, and speedily found out. 
His partner never knows what he is to expect from 



SECOND HAND. 



47 



him, and probably, being strong in trumps, draws the 
trumps, returns what he has reason to believe to be 
his partner's strong suit, and finds him with none of 
0, or, it may be, suspecting the usual singleton, he 
. jlares not play a trump when he otherwise would 
lave clone so. This habit is destructive of all con- 
idence, frequently helps to establish your adversary's 
Ifrong suit, and is likely to mislead and sacrifice your 
;partner< 

SECOND HAND. 

Playing high cards, when second to play, unless 
your suit is headed by two or more high cards of 
equal value, or unless to cover a high card, is to be 
carefully avoided. 

With two or three cards of the suit played, cover 
a high card. Play a king, or a queen, on a knave, or 
'ten, &c. 

With four cards, or more, of the suit played, do 
not cover, unless the second best of your suit is also 
a valuable card. Thus with a king or queen, and 
three or more small cards, do not cover a high card; 
.but if, along with your king or queen, you hold the 
"ten, or even the nine, cover a queen or a knave. 

With king and another, not being trumps, do not 
play your king, unless to cover a high card. 

With king and another, being trumps, play your 
king. 

With queen and another, whether trumps or not, 
play # your small card, unless to cover. 

With knave, and one small card ; or with ten and 



48 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



one small card ; or with nine and one small card, play 
the small card, unless to cover. 

With two cards of less value than the foregoing, 
play the smaller. 

With king, queen, and one or more small cards, 
play the queen, the suit not being trumps. 

In trumps, if along with your king and queen 
you hold two or more small cards, you may fre- 
quently venture to pass the trick, and give to your 
partner a chance of making it, when you have reason 
to believe that your adversary has led from strength. 
If his partner, however, has asked for trumps, or if 
the card led indicates weakness in the leader, play 
your queen. 

With queen, knave, and one small card, play the 
knave. 

With queen, knave, and two or more small cards, 
play the lowest. 

With knave, ten, and one small card, play the ten. 

With knave, ten, and two or more small cards, play 
the lowest. 

With ten, nine, and one small card, play the nine. 
With ten, nine, and two or more small cards, play 
the lowest. 

With other cards of lower value than the foregoing 
play the lowest. 

With ace, queen, and others, play the lowest, 
when you have reason to believe that your adversary 
has led from his strong suit ; but, if it is obvious that 
he has led the best card of a weak suit, put on* your 
ace, and, if you wish to establish that suit, at once 
continue it with your smallest card. Thus, if the 



SECOND HAND, 



49 



card led is the knave, you are sure that it is the best 
card which the leader holds in that suit, and if you 
do not play your ace, you may lose it by its being* 
trumped. 

If the card led is the ten, there is cause for con- 
sideration. The ten may be a singleton, or the 
highest of two or three small cards, in which case 
you should play your ace. But it may also be the 
recognised card to lead from a king, knave, ten suit, 
in which case of course the queen is the card to play. 
A nine, or even an eight, if you do not yourself hold 
the nine, may expose you to somewhat equal diffi- 
culty, as the one may be a legitimate lead from 
king, knave, ten, nine, and the other from king, 
knave, ten, nine, and eight. 

In this difficulty you must calculate as well as you 
can whether the card led is from a strong, or a weak 
suit, and play accordingly your ace, your queen, or 
your lowest card. Nor will you ever be without 
some means of forming your calculation. If the 
leader is a good player, and this his original lead, 
take it for granted that it is his strong suit, and play 
your queen. A good player almost always originally 
leads his strongest suit. If the leader's partner has 
thrown from this suit, thereby indicating that it is 
his weakest, believe it to be the leader's strong suit. 
He will not have led it, after his partner's indication, 
unless he is very strong in it, and you may feel 
pretty sure that his ten is led from king, knave, ten, 
and others. But if this is a forced lead, and the leader 
has previously led another suit, and that not one of 
commanding strength, you may be almost certain that 

E 



50 A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 

his new lead is a weak suit, and that he has led his 
best card in it. If not, and he had held a king, knave, 
ten suit, he would have led it in preference to that 
which he did lead. Again, if this lead occurs late 
in the play, of the hand, it is probable that you know 
so many cards which must be in the leader's hand, as 
to be sure that there is no room left in it for this to 
be a strong suit, By such considerations as these 
you must be guided. They will sometimes lead you 
wrong, more frequently they will be almost unfailing 
indications, but, however this may be, you must make 
the best of them, as it is impossible to frame a rule, 
which shall be a sure guide, what card to play, second 
hand, on a ten, or a nine, when you yourself hold ace, 
queen, and others. 

With ace, queen, ten, alone or with others, play 
the queen. If you lose her to the king, you still 
have the tenace over the original leader. 

With ace, queen, knave, or with, ace, queen, knave, 
ten, &c, play the lowest of the equal cards. 

With ace, king, knave, play the king. The second 
round in the suit will tell you whether the lead was 
from strength or weakness, and you will finesse 
your knave, or not, accordingly. 

With ace, king, and others, not being trumps, play 
the king. In trumps, unless the leader has led from 
weakness, you may safely play your lowest card, and 
give to your partner the chance of making the trick. 
.Nor does a card, led from weakness, bar you from 
doing this, if other considerations make it advisable. 
Say that a nine is led, it is almost certain that this is 
the leader's best trump; if his partner holds both 



SECOND HAND. 51 

queen and knave, you probably lose nothing by 
having passed the nine. It may be finessed, and your 
partner may make his ten. But if he holds an honour, 
he will, in all probability, make it, if even it is his 
only card in the suit. 

With ace, knave, ten, and others, not being trumps, 
play your lowest card, your ten would be played 
uselessly, for there is at least one honour behind 
you, either with the third player, who must play it, 
or with your partner, for if the leader had held king 
and queen, he would have played the king. In trumps, 
however, it is frequently right to play the ten, as in 
this suit it is not improbable that both the other 
honours are with the leader. 

Play an ace on a knave. 

It is generally right to play an ace on a queen. If, 
however, the leader's partner has given you cause to 
believe that this is his weak suit, either by throwing it 
away or otherwise ; or if your partner, by throwing 
away from other suits, has given you reason to hope 
that here he may have some strength, you may with 
advantage pass the queen, and give to your partner 
the chance of holding the king. It is to be presumed, 
that the leader has led from his strong suit, probably 
from a tierce to a queen, with another card. By 
passing the queen, if your partner has the king, you 
still hold the ace behind your adversary's strong 
suit, which is better than that your partner should 
hold the king to its right hand. For, when the lead 
is returned, the original leader must play one of the 
two remaining cards of his tierce, in order to draw 
your ace, whereas, had you played your ace on the 

e 2 



52 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



queen in the first round of the suit, on its return, 
your partner must play his king, leaving the original 
leader with both the knave and the ten, if he origin- 
ally held four cards in the suit. 

With ace, ten, and another, you may safely pass 
the queen ; the best which the leader can have is 
queen, knave and a small card, and this is most pro- 
bably his strength in the suit. If you pass the 
queen, and your partner has the king, the leader 
makes no trick in his suit, as you are behind him with 
ace, ten. Your only risk is, that the queen may be 
a singleton, or that the leader's partner may hold 
the king single, nor is this risk great. 

In the second round of a suit, if you hold the win- 
ning card, or third best card of such suit, you must 
be guided in your play by the indications which the 
first round will have given you. It will be generally 
right to take the trick, if you hold the winning card, 
but you may not unfrequently pass the trick, if you 
feel pretty sure that your partner holds the second 
or third best card. 

Thus, you hold ace and two small cards in a suit, 
your right hand adversary leads a small card, you 
play your lowest, the third player plays the knave, 
and your partner takes the trick with the queen. It 
is pretty clear that your left hand adversary does not 
hold the ten or king ; had he held either, he would 
not have played the knave. If this suit is led again 
with a small card, but one which is higher than his 
first, by the same leader, and you are thus again 
second hand, you may again with safety play a small 
card. The leader does not hold king and ten, for 



THIRD HAND. 



53 



as these have become equal cards, he would have 
led one of them. It is, therefore, clear that your 
partner holds either the ten or the king, and that, 
whichever he holds, he can win the trick. 

Again, if you hold in the second round the third 
best card of the suit, you will be sometimes right to 
play it, if you have reason to believe that your 
partner holds the winning card, which you may thus 
preserve to him. 

If your suit is a long one, say even four cards, you 
must bear in mind the danger that your partner's 
winning card may be single, and that he may be 
forced to take the trick which is already yours. 
There is also the further risk, that believing you to 
have no more of the suit, he may miscalculate your 
strength, and that of the other players in the 
remaining suits. The foregoing is, therefore, an 
experiment which I cannot recommend to young 
players. 

THIRD HAND. 
The third hand is, as a general rule, expected to 
play his best card to the suit which his partner has 
led, and which, in the case of an original lead, is, or, 
in the vast majority of hands, ought to be, his part- 
ner's strongest suit. By playing your best card, 
therefore, to your partner's lead, if you do not take 
the trick, you at least assist him to establish his 
strong suit. 

With ace, queen alone, or with others of the suit, 
it is advisable to finesse your queen, for you cannot 
lose by this mode of play unless in the improbable 
event- of the king being single behind you. If it is 



54 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



to your right, or held by your partner, your queen is 
as good as your ace. 

If you have reason to believe that your partner's 
lead is from a weak suit, you may make any other 
finesse, and protect your own suit, if it is worth 
protecting, as well as you can. Thus, with a nine 
led in a suit of which you hold king, knave, and 
others, you may finesse your knave, or pass the nine, 
if not covered by the second player, as the state of 
the game and of your hand may dictate. 

Or with knave, nine and others of a suit, you may 
finesse your nine or pass an eight, if led and not 
covered. There are a great number of similar cases, 
with which practice will make you familiar. 

There are several considerations which will lead 
you to judge whether your partner's lead is from a 
strong or a weak suit. The card he leads, when 
compared with those of the suit which you hold, may 
show you that it cannot be the lowest of four, or 
even of three cards, or that, if it is, the card, against 
which you would finesse, is in his hand. 

Or he may have led before, and you have found 
that his lead was from a suit of but little strength. 
In this case, as his first lead ought to have been from 
his strongest suit, it is fair to presume that his second 
is yet weaker. 

Or if one suit has been played out, or is plainly the 
adversary's suit, and you have thrown away a card 
from a second, it is very likely, when your partner 
leads a third suit, that he has done so, not because 
he is strong in it, but to avoid leading the suit which 
you have shown him to be your weakest. 



I 



THIRD HAND. 



55 



It can hardly ever be right to play the queen on 
your partner's ten, when not covered with the knave 
by the second player. Unless he has led from ten, 
knave, king, in which case your queen can do no 
good, the ten is almost to a certainty his best card 
in the suit, and you are right to finesse against the 
knave. 

In trumps, especially when very strong in them, 
you may finesse more deeply than in the other suits. 
You may occasionally finesse against two cards; 
Thus with ace, knave, ten, if there is no indication 
of a strong necessity for securing two rounds, you 
may play your ten. If your partner holds no honour, 
you secure two tricks in the suit, unless the two 
other honours lie behind you. If he does hold an 
honour, the finesse is generally as good in your hand 
as in his. 

With an honour turned up to your right, you 
should finesse your ten, holding ace, knave, and ten, 
and almost always your knave, holding ace and 
knave alone, or with a small card or cards. 

The finesse of knave, from king, knave, is rarely 
right, unless your hand is such that you can almost 
answer for winning the game, if your partner has 
led from strength, or unless it is obvious that he has 
led from weakness. 

In the second round of a suit you often know that 
the best card remaining in it is behind you. Thus, 
holding king and others, you have led a small card, 
and your partner has won the trick with the queen. 
He returns to you a small card ; you know the ace 
to be behind you; your partner has it not 3 or he 



56 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



would have played it ; your right-hand adversary has 
it not. or he would not have allowed the queen to 
make the trick. In this case, if, along with your 
king you hold the ten, you must play it, and finesse 
against the knave. If the fourth player holds both 
the ace and the knave, it cannot be helped. He will 
make both tricks, but you have taken the only chance 
for your king. 

The foregoing is equally good in any other com- 
bination of the cards, when, on the second round you 
find yourself with the second and fourth best of the 
suit, and a certainty or strong probability that the 
best lies behind you. Thus, your partner, on your 
lead, wins the trick with the ace, and returns to you 
a small card. You hold the queen and ten ; you are 
right to finesse your ten, for if the second player had 
held the king he would have played it most probably, 
the suit not being trumps, and, in trumps, at least as 
often as not. 

As third player, you must bear in mind that " to 
finesse" means to retain in your hand the best card of 
the suit, playing a lower one not in sequence with 
such best card, on the chance that the intermediate 
card is in the hand of the second player ; in the case 
of a finesse against two cards, such as the finesse of 
the knave, holding ace, knave, on the chance that 
the intermediate cards, one or both of them, are with 
the second player. There is therefore no finesse 
against a hand which has none of the suit, or which 
plainly does not hold the intermediate card or cards, 
against which you would finesse. This caution equally 
applies to the second player, who, though not so fre- 



FOURTH HAND. 



57 



; quently as the third, has many opportunities of using 
1 a finesse to advantage. 

FOURTH HAND. 

! 

Of the fourth player there is little to be said here 
! except that it is his business to take the trick if he 
can, unless it is already his partner's, and, if he can- 
not do so, to throw away his lowest card. 

In this position you should especially bear in mind 
that it is wrong to give away a trick without a very 
strong probability, almost a certainty, of making 
two tricks by your forbearance. Many players, if 
they hold the ace, knave, and others, of a suit of 
which the adversary leads the king, invariably for- 
bear to take the trick, in the expectation that the 
leader will continue the suit in which they then hold 
the perfect tenace. It is a bad and dangerous prac- 
tice, which I cannot recommend to you, except you 
have some special reason for it. Your partner, be- 
eving the ace to be against him, will trump the 
next round, if he can. The leader's partner may 
have but one of the suit, which, if it is continued, 
he will trump, and your ace will probably never make 
a trick. You give up, for one round at least, the 
great advantage of getting the lead. The leader, 
either from suspecting your tactics, or because he has 
another strong suit to show his partner, changes his 
lead, and when the suit is next led, it is probably by 
your right hand adversary, who leads through your 
tenace, instead of to it. In the meantime you may 
have upset the general scheme of your partner's 



58 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



game by leading him to believe that the whole of 
this suit is against him. And what have you gained 
by your ingenuity ? If you play in the simple way, 
and take the king with the ace, you will equally re- 
main with the knave the best card of the suit in its 
third round, if the second round is led by the original 
leader, or if it is returned to him by his partner, 
unless he has the opportunity, and avails himself of 
it, of finessing a ten. The chance of your partner 
playing this suit up to its original leader is so small 
as not to be worth consideration. He will not do so 
if he has anything else to do, but, such as the chance 
is, it tells against this practice, which is rarely ad- 
visable unless you are very strong in trumps. In 
this case not only is it allowable to run risks which 
should be otherwise avoided, but also your forbear- 
ance may tempt the adversary to lead trumps. This 
is more especially the case if one strong suit has been 
previously declared against you. Your adversary, 
who then believes that he and his partner hold at 
least the tierce major in a second suit, will not un- 
frequently be induced to lead a trump. 

The foregoing caution is applicable also to the 
second player, who, however, under the circum- 
stances described, may pass a king with somewhat 
less risk than is incurred by the fourth player, for, if 
the suit is continued, he takes the second trick in 
it with his knave, and undeceives his partner at 
once. 

There are occasionally cases in which it becomes 
plain that the fourth hand must not take the trick. 
I will put the most obvious, reminding you that the 



FOURTH HAND. 



59 



case is the same with every similar combination of 
the cards. 

As fourth player you have three cards left in your 
, hand, the king-, the ten, and a small card, of a suit 
of which the leader has led the queen, and you know 
him also to hold the knave and the nine. These are 
the only cards left of the suit, which we will suppose 
to be trumps, or, which comes to the same thing, that 
the trumps have all been played. It is clear that, if 
you take the queen with your king, you only make 
one trick with your three cards, as the knave and nine 
will lie behind your ten and small card. It is equally 
clear that, if you refuse to win the queen, and play 
your small card, you will make two tricks out of the 
three, as the knave and nine must then be led up to 
your king and ten. 

There are also some cases in which the fourth 
player should take a trick which already belongs to 
his partner. Here again I will put a very obvious 
combination leaving it to practice to show you others 
of a similar character. 

You have the ace and a small card of a suit, and 
two or three losing cards, which you know that 
your partner cannot win. He, as second player, has 
taken the trick in the suit of which you hold the 
ace and a small one, and you know that he can 
have nothing but that suit to play. If you do not 
take that trick from him, you will be forced to take 
the next trick with your ace, and have nothing left 
for it but to play your losing cards, and to submit 
to the loss of the remaining tricks. But, if you take 
his trick with your ace, and return to him the small 



60 



A TKEATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



card, you give him the opportunity of a finesse, when 
he will probably make two, or, it may be, all the 
tricks in the suit. If he can only make one, you 
have lost nothing by taking this chance. 

INTERMEDIATE SEQUENCES. 

An intermediate sequence is one which is neither 
at the head, nor at the bottom of a suit. Thus a 
suit of ace, queen, knave, ten, and a small card, 
contains an intermediate sequence. The way to 
play this suit, as also one containing a tierce to a 
knave, has been shown before, but some ingenious 
players have endeavoured to create a system for 
playing suits containing small intermediate se- 
quences, such as a tierce to a ten, to a nine, or 
to an eight, &c. 

1 Take some such suit as this — king-, nine, eight, 
seven, and four. They say that it is not right, in 
such cases as this, to play the lowest of the suit, 
but the lowest of the sequence, lest the first trick 
should be made against them by a very small card. 
They commence then with the seven. On the second 
round, unless called on to take, or attempt to take 
the trick, they throw the four. 

I cannot give my adhesion to this doctrine. My 
partner leads the seven, and I or the adversary take 
the first trick, and continue the suit, when my part- 
ner throws the four. I can only believe that he has 
led the best card of a weak suit. I perhaps refrain, 
in consequence, from leading trumps, which I might 
otherwise have done, and I miscalculate his hand in 



INTERMEDIATE SEQUENCES. 



61 



! many ways. The third round, to which they must of 
necessity play a higher card than that first led, will, 
they say, undeceive me. But, in the meantime, all 
the mischief may have been done. I may have led 
the third round in the hope of forcing my partner, 
and I have forced the adversary instead ; or I may 
have changed the whole scheme of my game. 

But they say, perhaps, that to the second round of 
the suit they would play the eight, and not the four, 
and this appears to me to be less objectionable. In 
this way they at least do not deceive me as to their 
having led from a strong suit. Yet still they have 
concealed from me one card, the four, which I shall 
believe to be in an adversary's hand, and which, not 
having been played by either adversary, may readily 
lead me to the conclusion that one of them has asked 
for a trump. The least evil is that I miscount the 
hand which I cannot believe to contain the four. 

These disadvantages, tending as they do to mystify 
the game, appear to me to more than counterbalance 
the small advantage of making sure that the first 
trick is not given away to a very small card. The 
intermediate sequence, however, of ten, nine, and 
eight, is of sufficient importance to justify this 
system of play in critical positions, but by no means 
as a general rule. 

The foregoing rules will be found easily intelligible, 
and not too great a tax on the memory, if the learner 
will be at the trouble of placing before him the cards 
named in the different cases given to him. Without 
this precaution, the enumeration of a variety of cards 
confuses the mind, and presents no picture to the eye. 



Chapter II. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAYERS. 

If my reader took up this volume as a beginner, I 
venture to hope that he has carefully studied and 
understood the preceding chapter. If so, and if he 
has played in accordance with its advice for at least 
a few months, he is now a good whist-player, and 
there is some presumption in addressing to him 
further advice. For it depends on himself — his in- 
clination, leisure, and opportunities — whether or not 
he makes further progress, and takes his place in the 
first class of those who find amusement in this beau- 
tiful game. His own observation, in a month, if he 
is a careful observer, will be worth more to him than 
all he could read in a year ; and each day will reveal 
to him some new combination or subtlety of his art. 
What more I have to say is therefore chiefly in the 
way of suggestion, which may improve the general 
scheme of his play. 

Whist, as played by its best players, has much 
changed in its general features during the last thirty 
years. When I first remember it, its great celebrities 
were, for the most part, men whose early education 
had been at the old game, or long whist. They were 
on the whole, I think, more accurate and careful than 
we are now- a- days, and, it may be, greater masters of 
their art in its details ; but, whether from the tradi- 
tions of their early training, or from other circum- 



SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAYERS. 63 

stances, they were wanting in the dash and brilliancy 
which distinguishes the best modern players, and 
sinned, to my mind, by what we now call a backward 
game. 

I remember, as a youngster, being told by one of 
the highest authorities, on the occasion of my having 
led a single trump from a hand of great strength in 
all the other suits, that the only justification for 
leading a singleton in trumps was the holding at least 
ace and king in the three remaining suits. He spoke 
the opinion of his school. That school, I am inclined 
to believe, might teach us much that we have ne- 
glected, but I should pick out of it one man alone, 
the celebrated Major Aubrey, as likely to be very 
formidable among the best players of the present 
day. He was a player of great original genius, and 
refused strict adherence to the over careful system, 
to which his companions were slaves. 

But whist had travelled, and thirty or more years 
ago we began to hear of the great Paris whist-players. 
They sometimes came among us — more frequently 
our champions encountered them on their own 
ground, and returned to us with a system modified, 
if not improved, by their French experience. For our 
neighbours, accurate, logical, and original thinkers, 
had not been content to imitate our system — perhaps 
their opportunities of doing so were too few — but 
had created a system of their own, which had the 
advantage of being but little influenced by the tradi- 
tions of long whist, a game never very fashionable, 
or carefully studied, in Paris. We were forced to 
recognise a wide difference between their system and 



04 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



our own, and " the French game " became the scorn 
and the horror of the old school, which went gradually 
to its grave with an unchanged faith, and in the firm 
belief that the invaders, with their rash trump lead- 
ing, were all mad, and that their great master, Des- 
chapelles — the finest whist-player beyond any com- 
parison the world has ever seen — was a dangerous 
lunatic. The new school, however, as I well remem- 
ber, were found to be winning players. 

It is not very easy to give an accurate definition 
in a small compass, of the rival systems, and that 
which I shall attempt must be taken with some al- 
lowance for the necessary exaggeration of the cau- 
tion of the one, and the rashness of the other. 

The English player of the old school never thought 
of winning the game until he saw that it was 
saved. 

The French player never thought of saving the 
game until he saw that he could not win it. 

The former, therefore, saved very many games 
which his rival would have lost, but the latter won a 
much greater number, which English caution would 
have missed winning, and would have stopped at the 
score of three or four, if not less. If forced to take 
my choice between these systems, carried to their 
extreme, I should without hesitation jDrefer the game 
of rash attack to that of over cautious defence ; but 
I am not so forced, and recommend a middle course, 
leaning, however^ more nearly to the new than to the 
old doctrine. 

Thus, with anything like a fair chance of winning 
the game from the beginning, it is right to run no 



SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAYERS. 



65 



little risk to seize the opportunity which may not 
occur again. 

Let us take an example. The game is at its be- 
ginning, and a small card has been turned up. I 
hold the queen, knave, and two small trumps, tierce 
to a knave and a small card in the second suit, queen, 
knave, and a small card in the third, and a guarded 
king in the fourth. With this, which is not very 
great strength, or with any hand of a similar cha- 
racter, I believe it so important to find out whether 
my partner has a third honour, and whether con- 
sequently I may play to win the game, that I unhesi- 
tatingly lead a small trump. If I find him very 
weak, I have no doubt played to a disadvantage, and 
must change my attack to defence, making the best 
of my hand, which would probably have been more 
profitably commenced by the knave from my tierce. 
But if my partner has one honour, and a trump to 
return to me, with only one strong suit, to which he, 
by the card which he throws to the third round of 
trumps, and the adversary, by his lead, will direct 
me, we shall very probably win the game, or at least 
be very close to it. The player of the old school 
would have opened the hand with the tierce to a 
knave, as exposing him to the least dang-er. 

I have only taken this hand as no unfair instance 
of a very large number of similar combinations, 
which illustrate the difference between backward and 
forward play, to the advantage, in my belief, of the 
latter. 

But those who do me the honour to follow my 
advice must always be ready to change their tactics 

F 



66 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



at once if their attack fails, and must remember 
that it is useless to persist playing a strong game 
with resources already weakened by failure. They 
will probably have lost something, but they will 
have taken a chance well worth the price they have 
paid for it. 

No mistake is more common, or more fatal than 
that, having seen with good reason, at the outset of 
a hand, the promise of a great score, the player does 
not yield soon enough to indications that that promise 
was fallacious, but obstinately pursues his first idea. 

The following case is a very singular illustration 
of this danger : — 

I dealt, and toned up a queen, along with which 
I held two small trumps. My partner — nor was he 
a bad player — held the ace and four of the smallest 
trumps, and, so to speak, the whole of another suit. 
"With this strength, assisted by my queen, he pro- 
mised himself, reasonably enough, a great score, if 
not the whole game. But the first two tricks showed 
him that he would be over- trumped. He should 
have submitted to this, and, as it happened, he would 
have made a good score, but he was unable to dismiss 
the idea of a strong attack. He trumped the second 
trick with his ace, led a trump, and we made no other 
trick. Thus with ace, queen, eight trumps, five of 
which were in one hand, between us, we lost twelve 
tricks out of the thirteen. It may interest a learner, 
and he will find it very easy, to place the cards so 
that this shall be possible. 

I may have said elsewhere, but I am not afraid to 
repeat it, that the best whist-player is he who plays 



SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAYERS. 67 

the game in the simplest way, and who always bears 
in mind the great maxim, that it is of more import- 
ance to give information to his partner, than to 
deceive his adversary. And this is all the more 
important when it is remembered that the same 
players, generally speaking, are always playing to- 
gether. If I am thrown among players of whom I 
know nothing, I feel that I play to a great disadvan- 
tage. I am like a boy on the first day of going to 
a new school, not knowing whom to like, whom to 
trust, and whom to distrust, from whom to expect 
assistance and honest advice, or from whom to 
dread a hoax. I must trust, like him, to the quick- 
ness of my observation to acquire the information 
which is necessary to my success. But when I know 
my players, I value him the most who never deceives 
me, and whose unvarying certainty enables me, as 
it were, to play his cards With almost the same 
knowledge of them as I have of my own. 

Let us take an instance or two. I have laid down 
a rule — it is no invention of mine, but is given, I 
think, in the old works of Hoyle, or Matthews, or 
both, and was decided to be right after some con- 
troversy among the chief Graham's players many 
years ago, — that with a tierce to a king in any suit 9 
it is only right to commence with the knave when you 
hold at least five of the suit. Nothing, however, is 
more common, even among very fair players, than to 
commence with the knave, holding this tierce alone, 
or with one other card only. It is a grave error, and 
I refuse to consider any man, whoever he may be, a 
fine whist-player who commits it. He has not under- 



68 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



stood the immense advantage which it is to me, not 
in that suit only, but ranging over the whole of the 
hand, to know, as if I saw it, that when he com- 
mences a tierce to a king with the knave, he has at 
least five cards in the suit. But perhaps he thinks 
the rule a bad one. Be it so, though I differ from 
him, my objection still remains in full force. The 
rule is known, and observed by the best players, and 
he, for some crotchet of his own, has refused me the 
information which I have a right to expect from him, 
and which, in the last few cards of the hand, will 
very probably make the difference of my knowing, 
or being ignorant, whether I can win or save the 
game. 

Again, I have laid down the following rule, on 
which I always act. As second player, holding king* 
second, if a small card is led, play your king in 
trumps, and your small card in the other suits. My 
reason for this is as follows : good players in the 
common suits generally avoid leading from an ace 
suit ; they keep their ace, if possible, as being almost 
as good as a trump to bring in their strong- suit. 
The ace, therefore, in this case will generally be be- 
hind you, either with the third player or with your 
partner, and your king would be played to a loss, or 
to little use. But trumps are led from great strength 
in the suit, and as the ace is the strongest card, you 
may expect in the majority of cases that it is in the 
hand of the leader, and that your king will make the 
trick. My reasons may not convince you in this, 
which has always been a vexed question, but, unless 
there is some very obvious reason why it is of vital 



SUGGESTIONS FOU GOOD PLAYEHS. 69 

j importance to me to get the lead, my partner at least 
knows when I play the king second hand, not being 
trumps, that I either hold the ace, with or without 
others, or no other card of the suit, and I have given 
him information which may be of great value to him. 
If you object to my rule, take the other course, and 
always play your king. It is better for you to be 
uniformly wrong, than to be sometimes right and 
sometimes wrong, and to leave your partner in con- 
stant uncertainty as to the state of your hand. 

Take as a third instance, another rule. With ace 
and small cards, do not commence with your ape, 
unless you have five or more cards in the suit. I 
have said elsewhere that the French do not observe 
this, but play out the ace with four of the suit. As 
to this difference, there is much to be said on both 
sides, but I prefer our rule. However this may be, 
give me the partner who invariably observes the 
rule, and who, by this constant observance, shows 
me, when he plays out the ace, and follows it by a 
small card, that, unless he has that small card only, 
or the queen and two other smaller cards, of which 
the fall of the cards will almost always inform me, 
he holds three other cards in the suit. If I am not 
to get this partner, give me next the player who 
always plays out the ace with three small cards. He 
plays wrong to my thinking, but he doas not deceive 
me, for I know his practice, nor does he puzzle me 
by playing sometimes in one way, sometimes in the 
other. 



70 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



FALSE CAKDS. 

It almost follows from what I have said above, that 
I hold in abhorrence the playing false cards. I freely 
admit, that to this practice there is great and fre- 
quent temptation, and I find it accordingly to be 
chiefly the vice of the very young, or the very old 
whilst-player. Youth is too careless, and old age too 
feeble, to resist. I am not surprised at this, for there 
is great enjoyment, when your trick succeeds, in 
having taken in your adversary, and having won the 
applause of an ignorant gallery, while if you have 
played in the common-place way, even your partner 
scarcely thanks you. You have done your duty — 
nothing more — and he had a right to expect it of 
you ; but he will trust you another time. Do not 
deceive him. 

You have ace and king- of a suit, and you take the 
trick with your ace. This is probably in your adver- 
sary's suit, for you would hardly think it right to 
deceive me in my own, but you cannot resist the 
temptation of taking in your opponent. What is it 
that you have done ? You have told me, as plainly 
as whist language can speak, that you do not hold 
the king\ In no other position in life would you tell 
me that which is untrue, what sufficient object do 
you propose to yourself by doing so in this instance ? 

It is true that every now and then you will gain 
an advantage over the adversary, but the disadvan- 
tage to me is certain and invariable. I must play all 
the worse for being blindfolded. Perhaps I fear to 
lead trumps, because I believe that the suit in ques- 



FALSE CARDS. 



71 



tion is wholly in the possession of my adversaries ; 
I should have led them if I had thought it possible 
that you could protect me in that suit, and you have 
injured the whole scheme of my game, or, it may be, 
that I am sorely put to it to find one trick in your 
hand with which to save the game. Be sure that 
the last suit in which I shall look for it will be that 
in which you have told me that you were unable to 
win, say a knave or a ten, at a cheaper price than 
your ace. Again, believing that the king is held by 
my opponents, and being probably able to say in which 
of their hands it ought to be, I miscount the nume- 
rical strength of all the players in all the suits, until, 
at last, I find that my partner has paid me the ill 
compliment of believing that I am likely to play as 
well with my eyes shut as open. I shall surely re- 
member this, and the bad effect of your deceit is 
not confined to the particular hand I have spoken of. 
It unfavourably affects our interests, when we are 
partners, for many a long day. Until you have radi- 
cally cured yourself of this error, and redeemed your 
character for straightforwardness by a long course 
of intelligible play, I shall distrust you, and shall 
never feel sure when you take a low card with the 
ace, that you have not concealed from me the king. 

Let me take one more instance, as a type of a very 
large class of cases which illustrate the danger of 
false cards. 

You hold, say, the nine, ten, and an honour in 
trumps, and, having to trump a trick, without any 
risk of being over-trumped, you trump with your 
ten. Your idea is that your adversary, who has 



72 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



shown no disposition to lead trumps, will force you 
again, in the belief that he will thus take an honour 
out of your hand. The opportunity does not arise, 
and we arrive at the last four or five cards of the hand. 
In most cases, by this time, counting the cards I know 
you to hold, and making allowance for those which I 
know you cannot have, I also know that you must 
hold, say, two trumps, and no more. You have already 
trumped with the ten, therefore your two remaining 
trumps ought to be two honours. I play in the 
certainty that this is so, and I find that one of them 
is the nine. 

Perhaps you will tell me, as I have been told by 
gentlemen with whom I frequently play, "I should 
never have played such and such a card" (a false 
one) " if I had had you for my partner." I feel much 
obliged to you. You and I shall probably win 
together, but why should you give cause of com- 
plaint to your other partners ? They must be very 
bad indeed if they do not suffer by it. 

I do not, however, go the length of saying that 
false cards should never be played, but I prescribe to 
myself, and advise to you, the following limits to the 
practice. 

With a partner so bad that no regularity in your 
play conveys to him any information, while he con- 
stantly misleads you as to the state of his own hand, 
all that is left to you is to confuse your adversaries 
as much as you can, and you will do well to play 
false cards on every opportunity. 

Another exception to my principle, and a somewhat 
similar one, is, when you have found your partner so 



FALSE CARDS. 



73 



! miserably weak in cards all round, that you can do 

, him no harm by deceiving him. 

In the last three or four cards of the hand false 
cards may often be played with great effect, and with 
no risk. The great scheme of the hand cannot be 
affected by them. Eightly or wrongly, it has been 
settled and acted on long- before. You are approach- 
ing closely the final result, which you can more or 
less foresee. At least you probably know thus much, 
that if your partner holds one particular card, of 
which you are doubtful, the result you desire is 
attained under any circumstances ; and that if he 
holds it not, you can do him no harm by deceiving 
him. In such cases as this you may often play a 
false card with advantage. You may deceive your 
adversary, and cannot injure your partner. 

Lastly, there are not unfrequent occasions when a 
card is a false one as against your opponents, but not 
as against your partner, who knows, or ought to 
know, that you have the card which you have con- 
cealed. In these cases it is obvious that the false 
card may be played, if you have a partner on whose 
intelligence you can depend. 

Practice and observation will show you, moreover, 
that when playing against a skilful opponent, who 
carefully notes the smallest cards, and more espe- 
cially when your partner, though a tolerable player, 
does not pay attention to those which seem of little 
consequence, you may often gain an advantage, 
generally in that opponent's suit, by playing false 
cards of a low denomination. Say that you have 
some such suit as this : the ace, nine, eight, and six. 



74 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



Your right-hand adversary commences with the king-, 
from a king- queen suit, or even with the knave from 
a suit of tierce to a king and two small cards. You 
may fairly expect to make two tricks in the suit, or 
at least to defend it ; that is, to hold the second best 
card in it, guarded after two rounds. You take the 
first trick in this suit with your ace, and when the 
second round is led you throw your eight. If in 
these two rounds the seven falls, your six and your 
nine are equal cards ; and if the ten (which will 
generally be the case if the leader held originally 
five of the suit, the ten not being one of them) has 
fallen also, your nine and six defend the suit, in which 
I suppose the original leader to retain an honour and 
two very small cards. He is often puzzled how to 
proceed, and may easily be in doubt as to the position 
of the six. He either has to change his lead, or il 
he continues it and plays out his honour, it is trumped, 
while your fourth card imprisons his remaining two. 
Some such false cards as this are justifiable under 
the circumstances I have supposed, more especially 
if you have a very weak hand, when you should be 
careful not to get rid of even the lowest card in your 
adversary's strong suit, if you originally held four of 
it. Observation will show you how very frequently 
even the very low cards, in the suit against you, 
become of great value after two or three rounds. 
This style of play will often be of service in trumps. 
In the other suits you must be careful that your 
partner does not mistake your tactics, and believe 
that you are asking for trumps. Indeed you will 
rarely be quite safe from this danger unless you 



UNDER-PLAY. 



75 



know that he has no trump to lead you, or have no 
cause for fear if he does lead one. 

If any are inclined to enlarge the limits for playing 
false cards which I have ventured to lay down, let 
them at least remember, that, the more skilful their 
partner, the more dangerous it is to deceive him, and 
that the most fatal false cards are those which, being 
of value, and being played early in the hand, are 
likely to affect its general scheme. French players 
are dangerously addicted to false cards, and the 
Americans rarely play the right card if they have 
one to play which is likely to deceive everybody. 
They play for their own hands alone — the worst 
fault I know in a whist-player. 

UNDER-PLAY. 

The meaning of the above term will be best under- 
stood by taking a case. 

You hold ace, knave, and one or more small cards 
of a suit, not being trumps, and you are the fourth to 
play. The third hand plays the nine, which you take 
with your knave, retaining the ace, and one or more 
small cards. It is almost certain that your partner 
holds either the king or the queen, more probably the 
latter, for the leader has not both, or he would have 
led one of them, and his partner ought not to have 
either. If, therefore, you play your smallest card on 
the chance that your partner may make the trick, you 
have " under-played " the original leader. This move 
will often gain a trick. Y r our partner may hold the 
king, not improbably single, in which case it would 
have fallen had you played your ace ; or he may hold 



76 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



the queen, which he will make, if the king is not put 
up, as is likely, especially if, along with his king, the 
original leader holds the ten. 

The following case, and others similar to it, may 
be considered to be " under-play," though not coming 
under that name so exactly as the preceding.. You ■ 
hold the king, with two or more small cards, and are 
the fourth to play. The leader has led a small card, 
and his partner having taken the trick with the ace, 
returns the lead. You hold up your king, and play 
a small card, on the chance that your partner may 
win the trick. This he is very likely to do, unless 
the original leader holds both queen and knave. For, 
believing the king, which you have held up, to be 
behind him, he will finesse a ten, if he has it, or even 
a nine, rather than play his queen to what appears 
certain destruction. 

The above are sufficient illustrations of a " ruse " 
with which you are no doubt familiar, and which is 
infinite in the number and variety of its combinations. 
It is a very obvious one, and therefore a favourite 
with moderate players, who rarely lose an occasion of 
employing it. Yet it should be used sparingly and 
with care, and with such considerations as the fol- 
lowing always present to your mind. 

" Solve senescent em." A trick, too often played, 
is suspected and defeated. 

In trumps this manoeuvre, like all others, is much 
more justifiable than in the common suits, in which it 
is dangerous. 

A good player is likely to suspect you, if you im- 
mediately return his suit through him, of holding up 



UNDER-PLAY. 



77 



its master card, on the chance of your partner holding 
the third best. Suspecting you, he will at once put 
up his best card, if the second best left in, and the 
best card, which you have thus held up, will very 
probably be trumped in the third round. The original 
leader is more likely to defeat you in this manner, if 
along with his best card, the second best of the suit 
left in, he holds no other card of sufficient value to 
have a chance of drawing the best card from your 
partner, if he holds it. In this case, it is clear that 
the only chance of making the second best card 
is that the best is in your hand. Thus if the * 
original leader, in the first case which I gave, led 
from king and three small cards, he will, if you 
attempt to under-play him, put up his king, for he has 
scarce any other chance of making it. If, along 
with his king, he held the ten and others, the nine 
and knave having been played in the first round, he 
will most probably try his ten, in the hope that it 
may draw the ace. 

If it is dangerous to risk under-play with a good 
player, it is equally so with a very bad one, who, as 
good old Matthews says, never finesses when he ought 
to do so. 

You will also do well to remember that you are 
much less likely to be suspected of under-play if you 
wait a few rounds, and do not at once return your 
adversary's lead through him, and up to his partner's 
known weakness. If you have a good suit of your 
own, play it. When it is partially played out, if you 
again come into the lead, you may under-play your 
adversary with much less fear of detection, for it is 



78 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST, 



supposed that having done the best with your own 
strong cards, you see nothing better to do than to 
lead up to the weakness of your right-hand adversary; 
and if, in the meantime, that right-hand adversary 
has got the lead, and has returned his partner's 
suit, you have in no way lost the opportunity for 
your under-play, if you choose to risk it. You may 
equally, indeed with much less chance of being 
detected, hold up your ace as second player in the 
second round, and the original leader of the suit, now 
third to play, will be equally puzzled whether to 
*play his king or to finesse a lower card, on the chance 
of drawing the ace, which he believes to be in your 
partner's hand. 

Subject to these considerations, your own ex- 
perience will show you that, used sparingly and 
with judgment, under-play is a formidable weapon, 
though often foiled by the very good, and useless 
against the bad player. Extremes meet in whist as 
elsewhere, and it may be observed of all the subtle 
artifices of the game, that they are employed with 
much more effect against an indifferent, or even a 
moderate player, than against a man who knows 
everything, or one who knows nothing of the game. 
The former avoids your snare, the latter does not see 
it. It is of little use to dig a pitfall for a blind man, 
who is as likely to walk on one side of it, or on the 
other, or not to walk that way at all. But the man 
of imperfect sight, if your trap is temptingly baited, 
and lies in his path, is pretty sure to tumble head- 
long into it. U A little learning" is indeed a 
dangerous thing at our game. Better far to know 



THE FINESSE SPECULATIVE. 



79 



nothing-, and to play your cards like the blind man. 
You mystify alike your adversaries and your partner, 
you turn the game upside down, reduce it to one of 
chance, and in the scramble may have as good a 
chance as your neighbours. But if you have learned 
enough to be an indifferent player, for your own 
sake study and improve, or, if you play with even 
fairly good players, you will to a certainty be a 
loser. 

THE FINESSE. 

So much might be said on this head — so infinite 
are the varieties of the finesse — so many and so com- 
plicated the considerations which make it right or 
wrong, that an attempt to exhaust the subject would 
equally exhaust the reader, and confuse his ideas. In 
the impossibility of writing enough, I have long 
doubted whether it would not be better to write 
nothing-, and to leave this— the most interesting part 
of the game — entirely to the acuteness and practised 
observation of the student. I will, however, offer 
to him some observations for his guidance, and may 
best carry out my intention by dividing the finesse, 
which, however, might readily be still further 
divided, under two chief heads, viz., the Finesse 
Speculative and the Finesse Obligatory. 

THE FINESSE SPECULATIVE. 

The simplest form of finesse is when you hold the 
ace and queen, or the ace, with the queen led by 
your partner, and endeavour to gain the trick by 



80 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



playing your own queen, or passing your partner's, 
speculating that the king, if not in your partner's 
hand, is in that of your right-hand adversary. This 
finesse is almost always right, and you cannot lose by 
making it, unless the king is single with your left- 
hand adversary. This is a finesse against one card, 
but you may occasionally finesse against two cards, 
or even more, either in the trump suit, or sometimes 
without great risk in the other suits, when the 
trumps are exhausted, and you have little cause to 
fear winning cards being brought in against you, 
which otherwise would not have been made. Thus 
with ace, knave, ten, and one or two others in 
trumps, I cannot think it wrong, unless there is 
obvious reason for making sure of two rounds in the 
suit, to finesse the ten. It is a finesse against two 
cards, the king and the queen, but unless both these 
cards are with your left-hand adversary, you have 
preserved to yourself the tenace. Again, your 
partner may hold an honour, in which case your 
finesse is only against one card. If an honour is 
turned up to your right, you would certainly do well 
to finesse your ten with ace, knave, ten. Even your 
nine with ace, ten, nine, and another, especially 
when the score tells you that your partner must 
have an honour, or the game is lost. This last finesse 
is more advisable if the honour turned up is a king 
or a queen, as also if you have reason to believe that 
your partner has one, or more cards of re-entry, 
enabling him to repeat his lead. 

I have spoken of the finesse in the high cards, but 
it must be remembered that, when these have been 



THE FINESSE SPECULATIVE. 



81 



played out, the finesse of the lowest cards, say, of 
the five, with the five and the seven, against the six, 
is a valuable as that of the queen, from ace, queen, 
against the king. When you have got thus deep 
into a suit, you will moreover generally find, if you 
are a careful observer, many indications which will 
inform you whether the finesse in the last cards of a 
suit can be made with little, or no risk. 

You will also do well to bear in mind that it is better 
to finesse in your adversary's suit, than in that of your 
partner, who should be trusted with the conduct of his 
own strength, and that you should run but very little 
risk for the sake of a finesse, the success of which 
will only leave you at the score of four, instead of 
three, while its failure will leave you at the score of 
two. instead of three, which, in this case, I suppose 
it to be in your power to reach. As the converse of 
this, you are right in running a greater risk in a 
finesse, the success of which will leave you at the 
score of three, while its failure still gives you the 
odd trick. A fortiori it is unpardonable carelessness, 
if you hold the winning card, to finesse when one 
trick wins the game. 

Even when one trick saves the game, finesse should 
be rejected, unless you feel sine, either from your 
own, or your partner's hand, that there is no danger. 

In order to finesse it is not necessary that you 
should hold the best, and third, or fourth best, &c, 
of a suit. Finesse is possible, and may be forced on 
you, with almost any combination of cards, sequences 
excepted. Say with king, knave against the queen, 
the ace being in, or with queen, ten against the 

G 



82 A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 

knave, the ace and king being both in, or with 
combinations of less importance. 

Lastly, I would offer the following opinions, not, 
I fancy, very generally entertained, for the con- 
sideration of experienced players. With ordinary 
hands, finesse may be deep at their commencement, 
should contract as they go on, until, in the last four 
or five cards, there is scarcely any opportunity left 
for finesse, properly so called. 

When weak in trumps — say even with no trumps 
at all — finesse deeply in the suit in which you believe 
your partner to be weak, in order, as long as you can, 
to protect him from a force. Take some such hand 
as this : ace, queen, ten, and a small card, or ace, 
knave, ten, and a small card. The partner leads the 
nine. Many a time and oft have I seen the ace put 
up, and the delinquent has excused himself by saying 
that he was so weak in trumps that he was afraid to 
finesse. To my mind he would have been wrong in 
simply finessing his queen. In either case he should 
have passed the nine. I, of course, suppose him nol 
to have any certain tricks, which he can play out, in 
the other suits. 

THE FINESSE OBLIG-ATOKY. 

An example or two will suffice to explain the above 
term, and to indicate the many cases, in which you 
are so far obliged to finesse, that you may gain, anc 
cannot lose by it, unless the hand has been played in 
some unusual, and almost impossible manner. You 
lead from a suit of queen, ten, and others. Your 



THE FINESSE OBLIGATORY. 



83 



partner takes the trick with the king, and returns 
your lead with a small card. You now know that 
the ace is behind you. Your partner has it not, or he 
would have led it. Your right-hand adversary has 
it not, or he would not have allowed your partner's 
king to make. You are obliged to finesse your ten. 
If the ace, and the knave both lie behind you, it 
cannot be helped, and, in whatever way you play, 
both cards will make against you. But, if the knave 
is with your right-hand adversary, your ten will 
draw the ace, and your queen gives you the command 
of the suit. 

The following case is as nearly as possible similar : 
— You lead from king, ten, and small cards, your 
partner takes with the queen, and returns a small 
card. You know the ace to be behind you, and here 
again, therefore, you must finesse your ten. 

Again, say that you have led from king, nine, and 
small cards, and that your partner, having taken 
with the queen, returns to you the eight. If you 
have studied the former chapter of this treatise, you 
know that he has returned to you the best card he 
holds in the suit, and that you have to contend, not 
only against the ace, which you know to be behind 
you, but against the knave and the ten, neither of 
which cards can be with your partner, The position 
is difficult, but there is no help for it. You must 
pass your partner's eight. It is a finesse against two 
cards, but one, or possibly both of them, may be with 
your right-hand adversary, in each of which cases 
you will have played to advantage, and even in the 
worst case, viz., that you find both knave and ten, 

g 2 



84 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



along with the ace, behind you, you have yet re- 
tained your king guarded, and have not given up the 
entire command of the suit. 

This leads to the consideration of another nume- 
rous class of cases, which, although not unsimilar, 
cannot strictly be called finesse. Take the same cards 
as given in the last example. Your partner equally 
takes with the queen, and returns the eight, 
but your right-hand adversary renounces the suit. 
You now know that the ace, ten, and knave are, all 
three, behind you, and it is true that there is no 
finesse against a hand which has none of the suit 
played. Still you would be very wrong to play your 
king. You must pass your partner's eight, and you 
still hold your king guarded, which prevents your 
left-hand adversary from going on with the suit, 
without either giving up its command, or forcing his 
partner. Your king* thus guarded may still be of 
great value to you, as your partner will certainly not 
continue the suit, and your right-hand adversary 
cannot. To have played your king would have given 
the entire command of the suit to your left-hand 
adversary, than which no position could be worse. 
Cases similar to this are of frequent occurrence, and 
should be treated on this principle. 



WHEN TO DISREGrAED BTJLE. 

Rules are for the majority of cases, not for excep- 
tional positions, and a player is good, very good, or 
of the highest class, in proportion to the rapidity and 
acuteness with which he seizes the occasions when 



WHEN TO DISREGARD RULE. 



85 



rule must be disregarded. These occasions are so 
many, and so different, that practice and very accu- 
rate observation can alone master them. If, then, I 
give an example or two of departure from rule, it is 
in illustration of my meaning, and as suggestion, and 
not in the vain effort to exhaust a subject which is 
infinite, or to lay down any fixed principle for that 
which escapes from rule, and defies routine. 

It often happens that in order to save the game it 
is necessary that you should make a certain number 
of tricks out of the cards remaining unplayed. 
Perhaps you must make them all. You see that in 
order to do this your partner must hold certain cards, 
or that certain other cards must be in the hands of 
your adversaries, favourably placed for a finesse. The 
case may be so desperate that, for the desired result, 
it may be necessary to place almost all the cards 
remaining in the three hands unknown to you. You 
do not know whether they are so placed, but you do 
know that, if they are not, your game is lost. Your 
first consideration must now be, whether there is 
more than one possible combination of the cards by 
which the required result can be obtained. If so, you 
choose the least improbable, i.e., that which neces- 
sitates the placing of the smallest number of un- 
known cards. Having made your choice, if there is 
a phoice, or having seized the one chance, if there 
is but one, rile no longer exists, and you must play 
as if you saw the cards in their required position, 
lying faces upwards on the table before you. The 
success of your acuteness may not be frequent, for, 
in an intricate combination, the chances will, of course, 



86 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



generally defeat you, and you may feel that, after all 
your pains, the difference between a merely good player 
and yourself is practically very slight ; but when the 
position of the cards favours you, and the chance 
which you have foreseen comes off, you will be well 
repaid by a pleasant recollection of your skill for 
many a long day, and by the consciousness that you 
take rank among the masters of the game. 

Let me take a tolerably obvious example, because 
it is obvious and fresh in my memory, and not as 
being an unusually fine coup, for any good player 
would have played in the same way. 

There are five cards in hand, and four trumps 
only remain in. Of these I hold the tenace — call 
it ace and queen, and I know that my right-hand 
adversary holds the remaining two, — call them king 
and knave. He also holds a thirteenth card of 
another suit. My remaining cards are the ace, king-, 
and a small card of another suit. I know nothing 
more of the position of the cards, but, in order to 
save the game, it is necessary for me to make every 
trick, and it is my lead. 

Place these cards before you, and you will see that, 
if I play, in the ordinary way, my ace and king, I 
have lost the game, as my right-hand adversary 
must make one trick. 

There is but one chance for me, viz., to put my 
partner into the lead, when, if he has the best cards 
of the fourth suit, I shall throw away on them my 
ace and king of diamonds, remaining with my tenace 
of trumps, or if my right-hand adversary should 
trump this fourth suit, I over-trump him, draw his 



WHEN TO DISREGARD RULE. 



87 



other trump, and make my ace and king, in either 
case, winning the required five tricks. 

I therefore play my small card. This coup came 
off, my partner made the trick, and held the two 
best cards in the fourth suit, which he very pro- 
perly played. The combination is, comparatively 
with many others, a simple one, yet it serves to 
illustrate my meaning", as it necessitated, as the 
one single possibility of saving the game, the 
favourable event of four chances. My partner must 
be able to win the first trick, he must hold at 
least two winning cards in the fourth suit, and 
my right-hand adversary must hold at least one of 
my suit. 

Take another example. Some such case is not 
very uncommon. Your adversaries are very strong 
in trumps. They have commenced with three rounds 
of them, making the three first tricks, having four 
by honours, and having three trumps yet left, all 
three in the same hand. It is clear that if they can 
make one trick only in the other suits, their game is 
won. You now win the fourth trick, and find your- 
self with one strong suit, say an ace, queen, ten, or 
an ace, king, knave, or ten suit, and with no strength 
whatever in the remaining two suits. 

Your first consideration will be that your partner 
must be strong in your weak suits. He need not 
have the whole of them, for, if he is led to, more 
than once, successful finesse in them, may enable 
him to make all the tricks, although even two 
honours in one, or both of them, may be against 
him to his right. If you play your strong suit, you 



88 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



part with the possibility of getting the lead, and 
leading to your partner the suits in which, in order 
to save the game, he must be strong. You should, 
therefore, lead to him whichever of your two weak 
suits appears the more advantageous. He will finesse, 
deeply, for the case is desperate ; and if he succeeds, 
he will, if he is a fine player, act on the same prin- 
ciple which dictated your play, and will lead to you 
his weak suit, which, of course, is your strong one. 
You finesse in your turn, lead to him again in a 
weak suit, and wait for him again to lead to your 
strength. You may readily be able to lead to him 
three times in this way. Both his tricks and yours 
will, at some time or other, be trumped, but for this 
you are prepared, and it cannot be helped, as there 
are three trumps against you in one hand which 
must make When your adversary trumps, he must 
lead up to you or your partner. I have seen many a 
desperate game saved in this way, and as few things 
are less intelligible than an intricate combination 
merely described as above, I will place the cards in 
an order which will explain my meaning, and enable 
you to play the hand with a successful result. 

Your hand is marked 1. Your left-hand adversary 
2, and so on. 

1. Two small spades (trumps), ace, king, knave, 
ten in clubs. Ten and three small diamonds. Nine 
and two small hearts. 

2. Ace, king, and one small trump. Two small 
clubs. King, knave, and two small hearts. King, 
knave, and two small diamonds. 

3. Two small trumps. Three small clubs. Ace, 



WHEN TO DISREGARD RULE. 



89 



queen, ten and eight in hearts. Ace, queen, and 
two small diamonds. 

4. Tierce to a queen and three small trumps. 
Queen, nine, eight and one small club. Two small 
hearts. The nine in diamonds. 

4 commences and leads his queen of trumps, 
which makes, and he follows it with the knave. 
This his partner is obliged to win with the king, and, 
in order to draw as many trumps as he can, he plays 
out his ace. Both you and your partner renounce, 
he discarding a small club, and you a small 
diamond, for a reason to be given hereafter. It is 
now clear that as 4 holds three more trumps, you 
must make every trick in the other suits, in order to 
save the game. 

2 still remains with the lead, and following your 
discard, also because his diamonds are as strong as 
his hearts, he leads a small diamond, on which his 
partner can only put the nine, won by your ten. If 
you play out your clubs, which is your only strong 
suit, you have lost the game. But as your partner 
must be strong in hearts, and as you do not wish to 
help to establish the diamonds of your opponents, 
you play your nine of hearts, which he passes. You 
continue the suit, he takes the trick and leads you a 
club, when you finesse your ten, continue the heart, 
and the rest of the hand plays itself. You have 
made your seven tricks. 

If you are asked why you originally discarded 
a diamond, when you held ten four in that suit, 
and only nine three in hearts, your reason is that, 
in this exceptional case, it is better for you to 



90 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



retain, in each of your weak suits, the power of 
leading, as often as there may be occasion, to your 
partner. 

In such cases as these, the play I have advised 
is still more necessary if the trumps remaining in 
against you are to your left hand. For if you have 
all the best cards of a suit, and your partner some 
small cards in it, so that you are sure to force the 
strong hand, yet he, when forced, of necessity leads 
through your partner, and up to the suits in which 
you have nothing, which is a more disadvantageous 
position, than if your partner is led up to by you, or 
by his other adversary. 

Like the examples which I have given before, the 
above is a very obvious one, but the student, if in- 
clined, may easily put together others of more com- 
plication. 

Towards the close of a hand — say, in the last four 
cards — it not unfrequently becomes clear that only 
two tricks can be made in a suit as yet unplayed, 
inasmuch as the two last trumps, or the last trump 
and a thirteenth card, are both in one hand. In such 
a case as this, if your four cards should all be in the 
unplayed suit — say a queen, or a knave, and three 
small cards, you must consider this as if it were a 
weak suit of two cards, and lead your queen, or your 
knave, as the case may be. 

LE GRAND COUP. 
Among the most interesting combinations in which 



LE GKAND COUP. 



91 



: rule must be disregarded, that which Deschappelles 
has named " le grand coup," occupies the first place. 
He had a good right to be its godfather, for if any 

| one before him had practised it, no one certainly had 
reduced it to anything like a system, nor has it been 
employed before, or since his time, with such fre- 
quency or acuteness as he displayed. 

Le grand coup consists in getting rid of a super- 
fluous trump. Every one who has played whist much 
must have observed the not unfrequent occasions 
when a player has found himself, probably in the 
last three cards of the hand, with a trump too many. 
He has been obliged to trump his partner's trick, to 
take the lead himself, and to lead from his tenace, 
instead of being led to, by which a trick is lost. The 
triumph of the great whist-player is to foresee this 
position, and to take an opportunity of getting rid of 
this inconvenient trump, which may be done, either 
by under- trumping the adversary, when you cannot 
over-trump him, or by trumping your partner's trick, 
when you hold a losing card, with which you know 
you can again give him the lead, if you wish to do 
so. I have known Deschappelles, and not unfre- 
quently, to foresee this difficulty, and defend himself 
against it, many tricks before it was established, or 
at all apparent to any one else. 

I will give the simplest example of le grand coup, 
in a combination of which every good player would 
take advantage. Place the following hands before 
you with four cards in each, leaving out hand No. 2, 
your left-hand adversary, which has nothing to do 
with the play. 



92 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



1. Ace, queen, and a small club (trumps), one 
losing- spade. 

3. The winning heart, and the winning spade, with 
any other two cards not being trumps. 

4. King, knave of clubs (trumps), a losing heart, 
and a losing spade. 

Your hand is No. 1, and I suppose you to know 
that the king and knave of trumps lie with your 
right-hand adversary, and that there are no trumps 
left in, except those held by him and you. 

3. Your partner has the lead, and leads the win- 
ning heart. If on this you throw your losing spade, 
you will only make three tricks, for you will be 
obliged to take the next trick, and lead from your 
tenace, when your right-hand adversary will make a 
trick. I give him, of course, credit for knowing your 
three, as well as you know his two trumps, in which 
case he will take care not to let you over- trump him, 
if he can help it, but will take the obvious chance of 
your being forced to trump, and to lead from your 
tenace. But you may, and should, take a very good 
chance of making all four tricks, without any risk 
whatever, for your three tricks will be made in any 
case. You therefore, instead of throwing away your 
losing spade, trump your partner's winning heart, 
and lead the spade. If he can win this trick, you 
remain with your ace, queen of trumps behind the 
king, knave, and must win all four tricks. But if 
your partner should not hold the winning spade, or, 
if holding it, it should be trumped, you have lost 
nothing, for you still make three tricks. 

When, many years ago, I first thought of writing 



LE GRAND COUP. 



93 



on Whist, it was my intention to have given a 
variety of hands and cnrions cases taken from actual 
experience, and arranged after the fashion of chess 
problems, but this has since been so excellently done 
by " Cavendish, " that, were I to carry out my inten- 
tion, I should appear to be unworthily poaching on a 
manor which is fairly his, and which I could not 
improve, and I have therefore restricted myself to 
giving such examples only as have been necessary 
for the illustration of the advice I have given. The 
whole work of " Cavendish" is admirable — the points 
of difference between us are very few, and, if in this 
work I have written anything of value, not the least 
valuable part of it will be the conclusion of this 
chapter, in which I urge all those who desire to 
become whist-players of the highest order, to give a 
very careful study to the hands which " Cavendish" 
has arranged for them. 

I may, however, permit myself to present to my 
readers one of the most beautiful problems I have 
ever seen. It occurred a few months back in actual 
play in Vienna, and at double dummy. Its story 
runs thus : — The most celebrated player in Vienna 
had to play the hands, Nos. 1 and 3 ; as soon as the 
cards where exposed, he exclaimed, "Why I shall 
make all thirteen tricks." This appeared impossible 
to the bystanders, for, although his hands were, 
between them, of commanding strength, still his 
adversary's hands, between them, held every suit 
guarded, except the trump. Large bets were made 
against the accomplishment of the feat, which was, 
however, performed ; and it became evident that, if 



94 A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 

hands 1 and 3 are rightly played, hands 2 and 4 are 
utterly helpless, and in spite of three guarded suits, 
must lose all thirteen tricks. I give the four hands 
below, and withhold the key to the mystery, in 
the hope that my readers will be at the trouble of 
finding it for themselves. 

GrEEAT VIENNA COUP AT DOUBLE DUMMY. 



Clubs are trumps. No. 1 leads, and makes all thirteen tricks. 
1. 





I 


I 

s 


i 


3 




Tierce- 
major 

card. 


One 
small 
card. 


Ace 
and 
GLueen. 


Cards. 




•spaourBTa 


Kin? 
and 
one 

card. 




W 


Clubs. 


•sapudg 


ill 


mm 


Hearts. 




Hi 


urn 


Spades. 


•sqnio 


Tierce 

to a 
Knave. 


Knave, 
ten, 
and 

small 
card. 


Diamonds. 




•spiBD 

TTBUIS 
OAVJ, 


•pieo 

& 


•pit!0 

Hums 

QUO 
pUB 
JOfBUI 


•spiua 




! 


I 


1 


1 



*8 



Chapter IIL 



ASKING- FOE TETTMPS. 

This conventional sign was first introduced some 
twenty- five years back at Graham's, not long before 
the dissolution of that greatest of card clubs. It was 
before long adopted by all club players, to whom, 
however, for some time, it was more or less re- 
stricted. It is now, so to speak, universal among 
English whist-players, though not as yet in use out 
of England, and it is of such great importance, and 
so imperfectly understood, as to require a separate 
chapter. 

It consists in throwing away an unnecessarily high 
card, and it is requisite to pay great attention to this 
definition. Thus, if you have the deuce and three 
of a suit of which two rounds are played, by playing 
the three to the first round, and the deuce to the 
second, you have signified to your partner your wish 
that he should lead a trump as soon as he gets the 
lead. The same with any other higher card played 
unnecessarily before a lower. 

I have heard it said thoughtlessly, but not un- 
frequently, that this is unfair, that it would be as 
well to make some sign with the finger, to kick your 
partner under the table, or to tell him openly to lead 
you a trump. Indeed, this last method would be the 
least objectionable of those alluded to, as your 
adversaries would gain as much information as your 



96 



A. TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



partner. But this charge of unfairness can only be 
made by those who have thought little of the princi- 
ples and practice of whist. It is fair to give to your 
partner any intimation which could be given if the 
cards were placed on the table, each exactly in the 
same manner as the others, by a machine, the players 
being out of sight and hearing each of the others. 
Thus, if you play a king, and without obvious reason 
change your lead, it is generally understood that 
you hold the ace and knave. You throw away the 
ace of a suit in order to inform your partner that 
you hold in it the next best cards, and this very act 
of throwing away a higher card before a lower, had, 
many years back, a different signification, and in- 
structed your partner that you held but two cards 
in the suit. 

The origin of this practice is so perfectly in the 
spirit of our game, when well played, that I am 
somewhat surprised at the length of time which was 
required to reduce it to an understood signification. 
It arose thus :— You have, let us suppose, a very 
strong hand in trumps, a strong suit, and two weak 
suits, say, a queen and a small card in one, a knave 
and a small card in the other. Your adversary leads 
the king of one of your weak suits. You throw 
your queen in order to induce him to lead a trump for 
the protection of his suit, or to induce him at least 
to change his lead. He does not, however, fall into 
your trap, but plays his ace, and you play a small 
card. Your other weak suit is then probably led, 
and you follow the same tactics, but to no purpose. 
You have to deal with a shrewd adversary. Your 



ASKING FOR TRUMPS. 



97 



partner gets the lead in the third round of one 
of these suits. How should he reason ? He should 
see at once — and, if a good player, he would see at 
once — that you had endeavoured in vain to tempt 
your adversaries to lead trumps, and he should do for 
you that from which they had wisely abstained. 
I Again— it is, let us say, your partner's lead. He 
i has two ace-king suits, and plays his two kings in 
| order to show you his strength. To each you throw 
a high card. He reasons thus — my partner's hand is 
I all, or nearly all, trumps and the fourth suit. If it 
! is not, he wishes me to think so, and thereby to in- 
duce me to lead him a trump. This method of play 
being as old as whist itself, it was certain, sooner or 
later, to be reduced to the conventional sign — good 
in the lowest cards as well as the highest — of which 
I now treat. 

Asking for trumps, is then a conventional sign, 
like any other, neither more nor less, open to no 
objection on the score of unfairness. Whether or 
not it is an improvement of the game is quite another 
question, but one which it is scarce worth while to 
argue here, as the practice exists, and cannot, to my 
thinking, be put an end to. At least, it has simplified 
the game to the indifferent player, and greatly di- 
minished the advantage of skill. The time for 
leading trumps used to be the point, of all others, 
demanding the greatest judgment. Now, almost as 
often as not, the tyro knows whether his partner 
wishes trumps to be played. So much is this the 
case, that a player of great reputation, who claims 
such credit as may be due to the inventor of this 

H 



98 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



signal, lias often said that he bitterly regrets his 
ingenuity, which has deprived him of one-half of the 
advantage which he derived from his superior play. 
This practice, however, is established in England, 
and sooner or later it will travel, let us consider what 
ought to be its meaning, and how it may be made of 
the most value. 

" I always ask for trumps when I wish them led," 
was the remark of a very good player. It was 
plausible, but wrong, for, although apparently good 
for his hand, it might be destructive to that of his 
partner. If the sign is merely to mean, " I think a 
trump would suit my hand," it is, in my opinion, of 
little use, and your partner would be justified in 
taking no notice of your request, if the state of his 
own hand led him to a contrary opinion. Very great 
strength in trumps justifies alone this intimation to 
your partner, who should treat it, not as a request, 
but as a command. He should, as it were, hear you 
say to him, " I am so strong, that if you have any- 
thing to assist me, I answer for the game, or, at 
least, for a great score. Throw all your strength 
into my hand, abandon your own game, at least lead 
me a tramp, and leave the rest to me." 

Surely^ I have heard it argued, with two or three 
small trumps, and a great hand in the other suits, it 
would be right to ask for trumps. Certainly not. If 
a player is very strong in the other suits, he will 
very early get the lead, and it will be better that he 
should lead from his weak trumps, than that he 
should be led to by his partner. Looked at in this 
way, there are very few cases — I would almost say 



ASKING FOR TRUMPS, 



99 



none — which justify the neglect of this command 
from a partner. Almost the only case which occurs 
to me is, when you are youself so strong, that, unless 
your partner has thrown a card by mistake, you must 
have the whole game between you, and even here, 
if there is a possibility of missing the game, you are 
quite as likely to hit on it by disobedience, as by 
attention to his wish. 

A grave responsibility then attaches to the player 
who asks for a trump, and I have felt that responsi- 
bility so keenly, that it is not in my recollection that 
I ever took this liberty with my partner, by which I 
direct him to abandon his game, and blindly to play 
mine, when I held less than four trumps, two honours, 
or five trumps, one honour, along with cards in my 
own hand, or his, which made the fall of the trumps 
very plainly advantageous. I am far from saying, 
that with the strength in trumps which I have de- 
scribed, it is always, or even generally, advisable to 
ask for trumps. I have only ventured to lay down ■ 
that, which, in my opinion should be the minimum. 

I shall probably be told that in thus laying down a 
cast-iron rule, bending to no circumstances, I am 
much too " doctrinaire," and that such words as 
" never," or " always," cannot apply to the infinite 
chances of a game of cards. I freely admit that I 
have often been sorely tempted to break my rule. 
Nay, more, I am quite aware that I occasionally lose 
by my rigid adherence to it ; but I am convinced that* 
in the long run, I gain far more than I lose, by 
the absolute certainty my partners feel as to the 
strength I must have when I give this indication. 



100 A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST, 

For it cannot be too well remembered, and I have 
noticed it before, that, more or less, the same players 
play together for months, or years — it may be 
throughout their lives, and the best player is he who 
most carefully notes the peculiarities of the system, 
the greater or less certainty, and excellence of each 
of his playfellows. I take it to be scarcely exaggera- 
tion to say that no man is a very fine whist-player 
among men with whom he is playing for the first time. 
His superior observation — the first quality in a great 
master of the game — stands him in little stead. But 
when all the players, or most of them, and their 
respective excellence are known, it is difficult to 
overrate the value of a partner as to whom, when he 
plays in a certain way, you know, as if his cards 
were on the table, the exact state of his hand. I 
ask for a trump. My partner knows that I hold at 
least four trumps and two honours, or five trumps 
and one honour. I may hold more. As the game 
proceeds, it probably becomes plain that I cannot 
hold five trumps. He knows then that I hold at 
least two honours. It would not be more clear to 
him if I showed him my cards. Or perhaps it becomes 
evident that I do not hold two honours. In this case 
my partner knows that I have at least five trumps 
and one honour. His play in all the suits is regu- 
lated by information such as this, and, if he knows 
what he is about, he plays to an advantage not easy 
to over-calculate. 

But what happens when you have a partner who 
asks for a trump because, on the whole, " he thinks 
it would suit his hand/' and who, on these slight 



ASKING FOR TRUMPS. 



101 



3 grounds, thinks himself at liberty to dictate to you 
J the most important act of the hand? He asks 
i for trumps with but little strength— -say a knave 
1 1 and three small trumps, and a fair hand — his adver- 
j saries threatening to trump his best suit. Perhaps 
i the coup comes off right, and he exults ; perhaps it 
comes off wrong, and he adds to his offence the 
aggravation of saying " we must have lost the game 
anyhow ;" perhaps it does neither harm nor good, but 
leaves things as they would have been in any other 
way. However this may be, the mere effect on the 
one particular hand is of little consequence, but for 
months afterwards — for all time probably —you enter 
that man in your memory as a partner not to be 
trusted. He asks you for trumps ; it may be six 
weeks after his former flippant demand ; you know 
him capable of doing so for insufficient reason ; you 
distrust him, and very rightly ; he is like a ticket- of - 
leave man, who, having done wrong once, is likely to 
sin again ; the game is in danger, you disregard his 
wish, play your own game, and there is an end to the 
confidence which should exist between partners, if 
they are to enjoy the full advantages of their part- 
nership. 

Those who agree with my view of this matter will, 
as a necessary consequence of their confidence in a 
good partner, throw their strength into his hand, ; 
when he requires them to lead a trump. With two 
or three trumps they will lead their best, and if it 
makes the trick they will follow with the next best. 
With the ace and queen, they will play the ace and 
then the queen, &c. With four trumps, however, 



102 



TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



unless one of them is the ace, I think it still right to 
lead the lowest. With the ace and others, play the 
ace, as your partner may have asked, from a very 
long suit, in which case you will probably catch an 
honour from your adversary. 

In asking for a trump, it is rarely safe to give the 
invitation in your partner's lead with a high card — a 
knave or a queen. Your partner commences with an 
ace-king suit. You throw the knave, having a small 
card of the suit. If he has a very weak hand he perhaps 
changes the suit, in fear of drawing your queen, if you 
have it, or, under any circumstances, of leaving the 
adversary in command of the suit, and exposing you 
to be forced. Or, if he has fair strength, he probably 
plays a small card of the suit, in the hope that you 
may hold the queen, and in the belief that, if you 
have it not, you will trump. To his great consterna- 
tion, he finds you with a small card, and the trick 
is lost. 

It must also be very carefully observed that this 
invitation must be given in the first round of a suit. 
If it is to be permitted to play your lowest card — say 
the deuce — to the first round of a suit, and after 
wards to play a high card — say a knave — holding a 
lower one, to be played in the third round, in the idea 
that this is asking for trumps, there is an end to 
playing false cards, on pain of your partner mistaking 
your intention, and, right or wrong, leading you a 
trump. Now, although false cards are very rarely 
advisable, no one will say that they ought never to 
be played. 

In conclusion, I again draw attention to the defini- 



ASKING FOR TRUMPS. 



103 



tion of asking for trumps, viz : " throwing away an 
unnecessarily high card." Mistakes in. this practice 
are of very frequent occurrence, in some such way as 
this. My partner is second to play, and holds, say, 
the ten and a small card of the suit, which the adver- 
sary opens with a small card. My partner, being 
second player, plays his ten, and the trick is taken 
with the king, the lead is returned, and the original 
leader takes with the ace, my partner throwing his 
small card. He thinks that he has asked me for a 
trump, but he has done no such thing. His ten is 
not, as far as I can tell, an unnecessarily high card. 
It is an effort to take the trick. It may be played in 
the ordinary way from knave, ten, and a small card 
of the suit. He could only have given in this way a 
legitimate invitation for a trump, if the card originally 
led had been higher than his ten, which in this case 
would have been an unnecessarily high card. I ven- 
ture, then, to give the following advice for the regu- 
lation of this practice : — 

To ask for a trump, you must throw away an 
unnecessarily high card, playing afterwards a smaller 
card of the same suit. 

You are not justified in asking for a trump with less 
than two honours, four trumps, or one honour, five, 
and cards in your own or your partner's hand, which 
appear to make the fall of the trumps desirable. If 
I am forced to admit some exception to this rigid rule, 
it will only be towards the end of the hand, when 
the cards are so far known — when perhaps it is evi- 
dent that your partner must hold certain cards, or 
fail to save or win the game — that it may be justifiable 



104 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



to ask for trumps with less than the strength which 
I have indicated. 

The demand must be made in the first round of the 
suit, unless it is right for you to take, or attempt to 
take, the trick in the first round, in which case the 
demand may be made in the second and third rounds 
of the suit. Thus if, being second player, it has 
been right for you to cover a high card, or if you 
have taken the first trick in a suit, you are not pre- 
cluded from asking for trumps in that suit, if it should 
subsequently appear advisable to do so. 

Be careful of asking, especially in your partner's 
lead, with an honour, or even with a ten. 

With three cards in a suit, do not ask with your 
highest. The middle card will be less likely to mis- 
lead your partner, and will give you an opportunity, 
if you see occasion, to change your tactics, and, 
by playing a higher card to the second round, to con- 
ceal your request at least for a time. When you are 
at last obliged to play your lowest card, your partner, 
if he is a good player, will understand your change 
of intention. 

When your partner asks for a trump, sacrifice your 
game to his, lead your highest, and your second best 
trump, if you have the opportunity, and have two 
or three trumps. With four trumps, unless the ace 
is one of them, lead the lowest, but in either case 
play your hand generally, so as to strengthen his. 
Having an ace and others, however, in trumps, 
always play out your ace, even holding three or 
more other cards in the suit. 



Chapter IV. 



THE PRINCIPLES WHICH SHOULD GUIDE 
DECISIONS. 

However carefully laws may have been framed, 
cases will not unfrequently occur for which it has 
been impossible to provide, and which should there- 
fore be referred for decision to some player of recog- 
nised judgment, well acquainted with the laws of 
whist. If he happens to be a good lawyer to boot, 
so much the better, for I have known many questions 
at this game not unworthy of a lawyer's practised 
acuteness, and of the habit, which his profession 
gives him of weighing right and wrong. 

The arbitrator will do well to bear in mind the 
following principles, and to construe by their light 
such laws as may bear on the case referred to him, 
or, under their guidance, to establish a precedent 
where there exists no law, which even by analogy 
may assist him. 

The chief object of the laws of whist is to prevent 
an unfair advantage being gained by any one. Each 
case must therefore be judged, not by that which 
was the probable intention of the player interested 
in it, but by that which might have been the inten- 
tion of a player disposed to take such unfair advan- 
tage. 

There is no object in a penalty for an error by 
which he who commits it can by no possibility profit. 



106 A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 

Thus Dummy's partner may, without being liable to 
any penalty, expose some or all of his cards. 

No player can profit by his own mistake. 

Where two or more players are in fault, it must 
be considered with whom the first fault lies, and how 
far it induced, or, it may be, invited, the subsequent 
offence of his adversary. 

All penalties should be, as nearly as possible, in 
proportion to that which might have been gained by 
the offence if unnoticed. 

In illustration of the above principles I subjoin a 
few disputed cases, and the decisions on them. 

Case 1. — A. says, "I have the game." He is de- 
sired to lay his cards on the table ; complies with the 
request; they are called, and he makes four by tricks, 
this being one short of the game. He allows his 
adversary to deal, who having completed his deal, 
says, "You would have been game, if you had 
scored your honours." A. then claims to have won 
the game, because his original assertion was correct, 
and because he only forgot to score his honours 
owing to his being confused by his claim being dis- 
puted, and by his cards being called. 

Decision. — A. cannot score his honours. His ori- 
ginal claim was irregular, and he was at least bound, 
at some time or other, within the limit assigned by 
the law, to state in what way he claimed to win the 
game 9 whether by tricks and honours, or otherwise. 
He did not do so, and cannot complain if he suffers 
by a confusion introduced by his own irregularity. 
It is quite possible that, in a similar case, a player 
should not have observed his honours until informed 



THE PRINCIPLES WHICH SHOULD GUIDE DECISIONS. 107 

of them, but should have thought himself sure of 
five by cards. 

Case 2. — A. has the last trump, and one suit only, 
all winning cards, if pla}^ed in their usual order, viz., 
the highest first. The lead is with his right-hand 
adversary, for whom he does not wait, but lays his 
thirteenth trump on the table, saying that it is the 
card he shall play to the coming trick, after which he 
plays out his suit, waiting for no one, the highest 
first, and one after the other. His adversary claims 
to call all these cards. 

Decision.— -A.'s cards are not liable to be called. 
He has, however, declared the card which he will 
play to the coming trick, and this must be considered 
to be, as against him, a legitimate act of playing. 
If, therefore, his adversary has a card of A.'s long 
suit, and leads it, A. has made a revoke, which is 
past recovery, as, although no trick has been turned 
and quitted, he has pla} 7 ed to a subsequent trick. 

This decision was much canvassed, but at last ob- 
tained general assent. I think that it was right. 
A player can in no way profit by prematurely de- 
claring, or showing the card which he will play to 
his right-hand adversary's lead. Such declaration 
being taken as an act of playing, he runs a gratuitous 
risk. If the adversary has no card of the player's 
suit, again, nothing can by possibility be gained by 
the offender's irregularity, and he may, subject to 
the risk of having miscalculated, save time with- 
out incurring punishment. It may be, however, 
that his partner may have a card or more of the 
player's long suit, in which case he would be 



108 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



amenable to the law, which gives to his adversary 
the right of calling on his partner to take, if he can, 
any of the tricks irregularly played. 

Case 3. — A. and B. are at the score of four. They 
lose the trick, hold two by honours, but they have 
revoked. Their adversaries, who had no previous 
score, elect to punish the offenders by deducting 
three from their score, thus leaving the game at 
" one all." On this A. and B. claim to mark their 
honours, saying, that there is nothing to prevent their 
so doing, as they are no longer at the score of four. 
They also urge that, if this case has not been dis- 
tinctly provided for by law, it is within the powers of 
an arbitrator to supply the omission. 

Decision. — A. and B. cannot score their honours. 
Their claim is bad on every consideration. When 
they reached the score of four, they lost the right 
to score honours, and it is not reasonable that they 
should recover the right by committing a fault. 
Again, the laws of whist, in the case of a revoke, 
give to the aggrieved players the choice of any one 
of three ways of exacting the penalty. If the claim 
of A. and B. is good, the option is practically limited 
to one of two ways, when the revoking players are 
at the score of four — a restriction for which there 
is no reason, and which cannot have been the inten- 
tion of the framers of the law. But it is argued 
that this is an omission in the laws, to supply which 
is within the powers of an arbitrator. It is true that 
an arbitrator may supply a palpable omission in the 
laws, when such omission inflicts an injury on inno- 
cent parties, but it cannot be right for him to do so 



THE PRINCIPLES WHICH SHOULD GUIDE DECISIONS. 109 

when the only result of his labour is to give an ad- 
vantage to players who have committed an offence. 
There is, however, no omission in this case. If it 
had been intended, in any position of the game, or 
under any circumstances, to narrow the penalty for 
a revoke, it would have been so stated. To state 
the contrary is unnecessary. 

Case 4. — The dealer deals the last two cards on 
the packet of his right-hand adversary. Has he mis- 
dealt? 

Decision. — He has misdealt. Two laws somewhat 
contradictory, the one to the other, bear on this case. 
If the dealer deals two cards at once, he may rectify 
his error, provided that such rectification can be 
effected by the change of the position of one card 
only, and this law would appear to give to the 
dealer the right of correcting his error. But another 
law declares that the deal is lost, if the dealer 
places the trump card, its face downward, on his 
own or any other packet. In this conflict, the doubt 
must be construed against the offender, for which, in 
this case, there is all the more reason, because the 
trump card has a peculiarly sacred character, which 
entitles it to more than ordinary protection against 
any confusion. 

Any doubt as to the above case has been set at 
rest by the laws now published with the highest 
official club sanction, and which especially provide 
against the difficulty. 

Case 5. — A., as he believes, misdeals, cuts to his 
adversary, who deals, and finds that his pack con- 
tains fifty-three cards, the surplus card being ascer- 



110 



A TREATISE ON SHORT WHIST. 



tained to be one which is missing from A.'s pack. 
Can A. claim to take back his deal ? 

Decision. — No. A. should have counted his pack 
in order to ascertain, whether or no, it was complete. 
It may have been so, and the surplus card may have 
found its way into B.'s pack after A.'s deal. A. 
parted with his right when he cut to his adversary, 
which, however, he might have done under protest, 
while counting his own pack. 

Case 6. — A., who has the lead, places on the table 
a sufficient number of cards, all winning 'cards as 
against his adversary, to win the game, saying, 
"You may call them." Have his adversaries no 
other remedy ? 

Decision. — A.'s cards, in this case, are not exposed 
cards. As against himself, his adversaries have the 
right to treat them as played cards, and, having been 
played by him without waiting for his partner to 
play, his partner may be called on to win any one of 
them which he may be able to win, the remainder 
being then treated as exposed cards. A. had no 
right to prevent his partner from taking the lead out 
of his hand by a blunder however gross. 

Case 7.— A. being fourth player renounces. The 
trick is his partner's, but his adversary immediately 
turns and quits it. A. then finds that he has re- 
voked. Is he too late to correct his error ? 

Decision. — -A. is in time to correct his en or, unless 
he or his partner have played again. The adversary 
had no right to meddle with his partner's trick, 
whose turning and quitting, or that of A. himself, 
alone could have completed the revoke. 



THE PRINCIPLES WHICH SHOULD GUIDE DECISIONS. Ill 

Case 8. — A. takes a trick by trumping*, and, as this 
trick makes him game, he throws down the remain- 
der of his cards. It is then discovered that he has 
revoked. Is he too late to correct his error ? He 
claims to correct it, his cards remaining to be dealt 
with as exposed cards. 

Decision. — A. has revoked. His claim of the 
game, and throwing down his cards, must be held, 
as against himself, as an act of playing. His cards 
are also liable to be called. 



FINIS. 



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